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HON.    NATHAN    APPLETOX,    LL.T). 


rKKl'ARKI)    A<;i:KKAHT,Y    '1"O    A    RKSOLUTK 


MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY 


J5Y  ROBERT   C.  WINTHROP. 


(TJlilb  \\n  ^Introbudion  nnb  ^ 


BOSTON: 

?,Y    JOHN    WILSON    AND    SOX. 
22,   Sciroor,   STIIKKT. 
IS  01. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  tlie  year  1861,  by 

THE   MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


F  tf 
A  i 

: 


C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S. 


PAGE. 

Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society    ....  1 

MEMOIR  OF  Hon.  NATHAN  APPLETON, 

By  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop 5 

APPENDIX. 

Meeting  in  the  Merchants'  Exchange Go 

Remarks  of  John  A.  Lowell,  Esq.      ...*....  65 

Remarks  of  J.  T.  Stevenson,  Esq CG 

Remarks  of  Hon.  Edward  Everett 68 

Resolutions    adopted    at    a    Meeting    of   the    Directors    of  the 

Massachusetts  Hospital  Life-insurance  Company     .      .      .  73 

Resolutions  adopted  at   a  Meeting   of  the  Merrimack  Manufac 
turing  Company 74 

Proceedings  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Directors  of  the  Boston  Bank    .  7f> 

Proceedings  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Proprietors  of  Stark  Mills,  with 

the  Remarks  of  William  Amory,  Esq 75 

Remarks  of  Ex-Governor  Lincoln  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 

American  Antiquarian  Society 77 

Resolutions  adopted  at  the  same  Meeting 78 


In  compliance  with  current  copyright  law, 

U.C.  Library  Bindery  produced  this  replacement  volume  on 

paper  that  meets  the  ANSI  Standard  Z39-48-1984  to  replace 

the  irreparably  deteriorated  original. 


1992 


MASSACHUSETTS   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 


AT  the  stated  monthly  meeting  of  this  Society,  held  at 
their  rooms  on  Thursday,  8th  August,  1861,  the  Presi 
dent  (Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop)  announced  the  death 
of  the  Hon.  NATHAN  APPLETON,  a  Resident  Member  of 
the  Society,  as  follows  :  — 

We  have  been  called  on  so  often  of  late,  gentlemen, 
to  notice  the  departure  of  those  whose  names  have 
adorned  our  Honorary  or  our  Resident  rolls,  that  the 
language  of  eulogy  may  seem  to  have  been  almost  ex 
hausted.  Yet  I  am  sure  you  would  not  excuse  me,  nor 
could  I  excuse  myself,  were  I  to  fail  to  make  some  brief 
allusion  this  morning  to  a  valued  and  venerable  associ 
ate,  who  died  only  a  day  or  two  after  our  last  monthly 
meeting. 

Lowell,  the  revered  pastor;  Shaw,  the  illustrious 
jurist ;  White,  the  accomplished  counsellor  and  scholar  ; 
Bowditch,  the  faithful  conveyancer  and  genial  humorist, 
whose  diligence  has  illustrated  so  many  title-deeds,  and 


2  MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 

whose  wit  has  illuminated  so  many  title-names  ;  —  all 
these  and  more  have  received,  in  sad  succession,  our 
farewell  tributes  within  a  few  months  past.  The  wise, 
upright  and  eminent  merchant  presents  no  inferior 
claim  to  our  respectful  remembrance,  nor  will  his  name 
be  associated  with  less  distinguished  or  less  valuable 
services  to  the  community. 

Not  many  men,  indeed,  have  exercised  a  more  im 
portant  influence  among  us,  during  the  last  half-century, 
than  the  late  Hon.  NATHAN  APPLETON.  Not  many  men 
have  done  more  than  he  has  done,  in  promoting  the 
interests,  and  sustaining  the  institutions,  to  which  New 
England  has  owed  so  much  of  its  prosperity  and  wel 
fare.  No  man  has  done  more,  by  example  and  by  pre 
cept,  to  elevate  the  standard  of  mercantile  character, 
and  to  exhibit  the  pursuits  of  commerce  in  proud 
association  with  the  highest  integrity,  liberality,  and 
ability. 

The  merchants  of  Boston  have  already  recognized  his 
peculiar  claims  to  their  respect,  and  have  paid  him  a 
tribute  not  more  honorable  to  him  than  to  themselves. 
But  he  was  more  than  a  merchant.  As  a  clear  and 
vigorous  writer  on  financial  and  commercial  questions  ; 
as  a  successful  expounder  of  some  of  the  mysteries  of 
political  economy ;  as  a  wise  and  prudent  counsellor  in 
the  public  affairs  of  the  country,  as  well  as  in  the  prac 
tical  concerns  of  private  life ;  as  a  liberal  friend  to  the 
institutions  of  religion,  education,  and  charity ;  as  a 
public-spirited,  Christian  citizen,  of  inflexible  integrity 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  3 

and  independence,  —  he  lias  earned  a  reputation  quite 
apart  from  the  enterprise  and  success  of  his  commercial 
career. 

Few  of  those  whose  names,  for  thirty  years  past,  have 
been  inscribed  with  his  own  on  the  rolls  of  our  Society, 
have  taken  a  more  active  and  intelligent  interest  in  our 
pursuits.  Few  have  been  more  regular  in  their  attend 
ance  at  our  meetings,  or  more  liberal  in  their  contribu 
tions  to  our  means. 

Tracing  back  his  descent  to  an  early  emigrant  from 
the  county  of  Suffolk  in  England,  where  his  family  had 
been  settled  for  more  than  two  centuries  before,  he  was 
strongly  attracted  towards  our  Colonial  history,  and 
was  eager  to  co-operate  in  whatever  could  worthily 
illustrate  the  Pilgrim  or  the  Puritan  character.  He  was 
a  living  illustration  of  some  of  the  best  elements  of 
both. 

This  is  not  the  occasion  for  entering  into  the  details 
of  his  life  and  services ;  but,  should  the  Society  concur 
with  the  Standing  Committee  in  the  resolutions  which 
they  have  instructed  me  to  submit,  there  may  be  an 
opportunity  of  pursuing  the  subject  more  deliberately 
hereafter.  Let  me  only  add,  before  offering  them,  that, 
on  many  accounts,  I  should  have  been  disposed  to 
shrink  from  the  responsibility  which  they  impose  on 
me,  had  not  our  lamented  friend  so  far  honored  me 
with  his  confidence  as  to  express  the  wish,  that  I  would 
undertake  any  little  memoir  of  him  which  might  be 
customary  in  our  collections,  —  accompanying  the  ex- 


4  MASSACHUSETTS    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 

pressioii  with,  some  sketches  of  his  life,  which  will  form 
the  largest  and  best  part  of  whatever  I  may  be  able  to 
prepare. 

Mr.  Winthrop  then  offered  the  following  resolu 
tions  :  — 

Resolved^  That,  in  the  death  of  the  Hon.  NATHAN  APPLETON,  our 
Society  has  lost  a  valued  member,  a  liberal  friend,  and  one  whose 
enterprise  and  integrity  as  a  merchant,  whose  ability  and  accom 
plishments  as  a  writer,  and  whose  distinguished  services  as  a  public 
man,  have  rendered  his  name  an  ornament  to  our  rolls. 

Resolved,  That  the  President  be  requested  to  prepare  the  custom 
ary  memoir  for  our  next  volume  of  Proceedings. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  BLAGDEN  paid  an  eloquent  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  Mr.  Appleton  in  seconding  the  resolu 
tions,  which  were  then  unanimously  adopted. 


MEMOIR 


HON.     NATHAN     A  P  P  L  E  T  0  N. 


AT  early  dusk  on  some  October  or  November  even 
ing,  in  the  year  1794,  a  fresh,  vigorous,  bright-eyed  lad, 
just  turned  of  fifteen,  might  have  been  seen  alighting 
from  a  stage-coach  near  Quaker  Lane,*  as  it  was  then 
called,  in  the  old  town  of  Boston.  He  had  been  two 
days  on  the  road  from  his  home  in  the  town  of  New  Ips 
wich,  in  the  State  of  New  Hampshire.  On  the  last  of 
the  two  days,  the  stage-coach  had  brought  him  all  the 
way  from  Groton  in  Massachusetts ;  starting  for  that  pur 
pose  early  in  the  morning,  stopping  at  Concord  for  the 
passengers  to  dine,  trundling  them  through  Charlestown 
about  the  time  the  evening  lamps  were  lighted,  and 
finishing  the  whole  distance  of  rather  more  than  thirty 
miles  in  season  for  supper.  For  his  first  day's  journey, 
there  had  been  no  such  eligible  and  expeditious  con 
veyance.  The  Boston  stage-coach,  in  those  days,  went 
no  farther  than  Groton  in  that  direction.  His  father's 
farm-horse,  or  perhaps  that  of  one  of  the  neighbors, 

*  Now  Congress  Street. 


6  MEMOIR    OF    ITON.    NATTTAN    APPLETOX. 

had  served  his  turn  for  the  first  six  or  seven  miles ; 
his  little  brother  of  ten  years  old  having  followed  him 
as  far  as  Townsend,  to  ride  the  horse  home  again.  But 
from  there  he  had  trudged  along  to  Groton  on  foot, 
with  a  bundle-handkerchief  in  his  hand,  which  con 
tained  all  the  wearing  apparel  he  had,  except  what  was 
on  his  back.  He  was  now,  on  the  second  evening,  at 
his  journey's  end.  He  had  reached  the  destined  scene 
of  his  labors  and  of  his  life ;  and  it  may  be  hoped,  that 
when  he  laid  himself  down  to  rest  that  night,  alone  and 
in  a  strange  place,  some  bright  visions  of  success  in  the 
future  may  have  mingled  with  his  dreams  of  home,  and 
honored  parents,  and  affectionate  brothers  and  sisters, 
whom  he  had  left  behind  him,  and  have  softened  the 
sadness  of  that  first  early  parting. 

At  early  dawn  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  14th 
of  July,  1861,  there  died,  at  his  beautiful  residence  in 
Beacon  Street,  —  adorned,  within,  by  many  choice  works 
of  luxury  and  art,  and  commanding,  without,  the  lovely 
scenery  of  the  Mall,  the  Common,  and  the  rural  envi 
rons  of  Boston,  —  a  venerable  person  of  more  than 
fourscore  years ;  a  merchant  of  large  enterprise  and 
unsullied  integrity;  a  member  of  many  learned  socie 
ties;  a  writer  of  many  able  essays  on  commerce  and 
currency ;  a  wise  and  prudent  counsellor  in  all  private 
and  public  affairs  ;  who  had  served  with  marked  distinc 
tion  in  the  legislative  halls  both  of  the  State  and  of 
the  Nation,  and  who  had  enjoyed  through  life  the  esteem, 
respect,  and  confidence  of  the  community  in  which  he 
lived.  His  funeral,  three  days  afterwards,  was  attended 
by  a  large  concourse  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  by 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  7 

representative  men  of  all  professions  and  classes.  A 
few  hours  before  the  funeral,  a  public  meeting  was  held 
at  the  Exchange,  on  occasion  of  his  death,  at  which 
tributes  were  paid  to  his  memory  by  several  of  our  most 
distinguished  merchants  and  citizens,  who  all  spoke  of 
him  as  "fit  for  an  example,"  —  as  a  man  whom  the 
young  merchants  of  Boston  might  well  take  as  their 
model,  and  strive  to  copy.  And  on  the  succeeding  Sun 
day,  in  the  pulpit  of  the  church  with  which  he  had 
been  long  associated,  an  eloquent  occasional  discourse 
concluded  with  the  following  words  :  "  A  Christian 
merchant,  whose  faith  is  at  once  his  safeguard  and  his 
impulse,  whose  conscience  is  shown  in  what  he  says,  and 
whose  heart  shines  through  his  deeds,  falls  behind  no 
example  that  may  claim  the  praise,  or  provoke  the 
imitation,  of  men.  When  such  an  one  passes  on  to 
the  eternal  world,  let  those  who  have  beheld  his  excel 
lence  profit  by  its  instruction,  and  repeat  its  history."  * 

As  we  contemplate  in  immediate  connection,  and  in 
immediate  contrast,  the  two  scenes  which  have  thus 
been  sketched,  we  naturally  desire  to  know  all  that  is  to 
be  known  of  the  interval  between  such  an  opening,  and 
such  a  close,  of  one  and  the  same  career  ;  and  to  under 
stand,  so  far  as  it  may  be  fathomed,  the  secret  of  so 
signal  a  success.  No  details  would  seem  to  be  too  mi 
nute  or  trifling,  which  might  help  to  illustrate  such  an 
example,  or  to  bring  it  more  nearly  within  the  reach  of 
imitation  by  those  to  whom  it  has  been  so  justly  com- 


*  "Religion  conducive  to  Prosperity  in  this  Life;"  a  sermon  prenchcd  July  21, 
1861,  —  the  Sunday  ut'ter  the  funeral  of  the  late  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,  of  Boston, —  by 
Ezra  S.  Gannett,  D.D.  Boston  :  18G1.  J.  II.  Eastburn's  press. 


8  MEMOIR  OP  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

mended.  Fortunately,  abundant  materials  are  not  want 
ing  for  this  purpose,  from  the  most  authentic  source  ; 
while  the  simplicity  and  unity  of  the  career  which  they 
disclose,  will  allow  the  portrait  to  be  finished  without 
greatly  exceeding  the  compass  of  our  ordinary  memoirs. 

NATHAN  APPLETON  was  born  in  New  Ipswich,  N.IL, 
on  the  sixth  day  of  October,  1779;  and  although  his 
first  journey  to  Boston,  in  1794,  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  he  was  a  lad  of  very  humble  fortunes,  he  was  by 
no  means  without  advantages  of  family  and  education. 
Few  families,  indeed,  in  New  England,  and  not  a  great 
many  in  Old  England,  can  be  traced  farther  back  than  his 
own,  through  a  respectable  ancestry,  and  by  an  unques 
tioned  pedigree.  Among  the  Harleian  Manuscripts  in 
the  British  Museum  is  found  a  genealogy  reaching  back 
to  John  Appulton  of  Great  Waldingfield,  in  the  county 
of  Suffolk,  who  was  living  there  in  1396,  and  whose 
funeral  monument  in  the  parish  church  of  that  village, 
in  1416,  was  duly  decorated  (according  to  Weaver)  with 
"  three  apples  gules,  leaves  and  stalks  vert."  Among 
the  descendants  of  this  John  Appulton,  some  of  whom 
were  settled  in  Great  and  some  in  Little  Waldingfield, 
—  some  of  whom  were  connected  with  knightly  families, 
and  at  least  one  of  whom  bore  the  title  of  Sir  himself,  — 
Samuel  Appleton,  the  first  emigrant  to  New  England  (in 
1635),  was  of  the  seventh  generation. 

Following  down  the  history  of  the  family  on  Ameri 
can  soil  through  five  generations,*  —  all  of  them  illus- 

*  See  Memorial  of  Samuel  Appleton,  of  Ipswich,  Mass.,  with  Genealogical  Notices, 
&c.,  by  Isaac  Applctou  Jewett.  Boston:  1850. 


MEMOIR    OP    HON.    NATHAN    AITLKTON.  U 

tratcd  by  names  associated  with  valuable  services  in 
Church  or  State,  in  peace  or  war,  in  some  honorable 
profession  or  in  some  no  less  honorable  department  of 
useful  industry,  —  during  the  larger  part  of  the  time  at 
Ipswich,  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  first  emigrant 
settled j  and  more  recently  at  New  Ipswich,  in  New 
Hampshire, —  we  come  to  the  subject  of  our  memoir. 

He  was  the  seventh  son  of  Isaac  Appleton,  whose 
habitual  title  of  Deacon  was  doubtless  a  just  recognition 
of  the  gravity  of  his  character,  and  of  the  interest  which 
he  took  in  the  religious  institutions  of  the  community  in 
which  he  lived.  The  father  of  twelve  children,  ten  of 
whom  lived  to  maturity,  Isaac  may  not  have  had  the 
wealth,  even  if  he  had  the  will,  to  send  all  his  boys  to 
college.  It  may  perhaps  have  damped  his  disposition 
for  making  scholars  of  the  others,  that  his  second  son 
(Joseph)  died  so  soon  after  taking  his  Bachelor's  degree 
at  Hanover.  But  the  early  education  of  his  children 
was  not  neglected,  cither  by  him  or  by  themselves.  The 
school  life  and  academy  life  of  Nathan,  certainly,  seem 
to  have  been  deeply  impressed  on  his  own  memory.  Ho 
was  evidently  an  ambitious  and  a  successful  scholar. 
He  pursued  his  studies  until  he  was  fitted  to  enter  col 
lege  ;  and,  after  a  formal  examination,  he  was  regularly 
admitted  to  the  freshman-class  at  Dartmouth  College. 
The  following  passage  from  the  "  Sketches  of  Autobi 
ography,"  which  lie  committed  to  the  writer  of  these 
pages,  with  his  own  hand,  not  long  before  his  death, 
and  which  were  drawn  up  about  six  years  since,  gives  a 
vivid  picture  of  his  early  days  ;  and  though  it  leaves 
the  question  unsettled,  whether  his  stopping  short  at  the 


10  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

very  threshold  of  college  life  was  owing  to  his  father's 
preferences  or  his  OAVII,  it  shows  conclusively  that  it  was 
not  from  being  turned  by  at  the  examination.  Nathan 
was  not  of  a  complexion  to  be  turned  by  from  any  thing 
which  he  undertook,  either  as  boy  or  man  ;  and  Dart 
mouth  lost  a  good  scholar  and  a  distinguished  alumnus, 
when  he  declined  the  matriculation  which  she  tendered 
to  him,  and  to  which  his  examination  had  fully  entitled 
him. 

"  I  was  born  at  New  Ipswich,  according  to  the  record,  on  the 
sixth  day  of  October,  1779.  The  only  tradition  which  I  ever 
heard  of  my  infancy  is,  that  I  was  so  near  being  carried  off  by 
a  lung-fever,  that  preparations  were  making  for  laying  me  out. 
The  earliest  thing  of  which  I  have  any  recollection  is  the  fall 
ing  of  the  sash  of  a  window,  when  I  was  in  somebody's  arms, 
upon  the  forefinger  of  my  left  hand,  by  which  it  was  cruelly 
crushed,  and  the  marks  of  which  remain  all  my  life.  I  have 
some  recollection  of  going  to  school  to  the  Widow  Tillick,  who 
taught  me  the  letters  by  pointing  them  out  with  a  fescue.  I 
afterward  attended  the  town-school,  kept  by  a  Mr.  Hedge.  I  well 
recollect  the  trepidation  with  which  I  was  seized,  the  first  day 
of  my  attendance,  at  seeing  a  big  boy,  my  cousin,  called  up,  and 
receive  a  severe  flogging.  My  first  appearance  in  public  was  at 
this  school  at  a  very  early  age,  when  I  recited  '  Aurora,  now 
fair  daughter  of  the  dawn,'  to  the  great  admiration  of  several 
old  women,  who  particularly  praised  me  in  the  lines,  — 

CI  fix  the  chain  to  great  Olympus'  height, 
And  the  vast  world  hangs  trembling  in  my  sight.' 

I  recollect  that  this  was  the  first  occasion  of  my  appearing  in 
jacket  and  trousers,  and  that  they  consisted  of  red  calamanco. 
Mr.  Hedge  was  unpopular  with  the  older  scholars  :  and,  on  occa 
sion  of  some  difficulty  about  the  schoolhouse  chimney,  some  of 
the  bigger  boys,  being  sent  up  into  the  garret  to  see  what  was 
the  matter,  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  break  down  the 


MEMOIR   OP    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  11 

chimney  altogether ;  and  thus  was  an  end  put  to  the  school  for 
the  year.  A  new  schoolhouse  was  built,  about  half  way  up  the 
steep  hill ;  which  was  then  the  only  avenue  through  the  middle 
of  the  town.  At  this  I  attended  school  several  years  during  the 
winter,  or  as  long  as  the  town-school  was  kept.  The  only  com 
petition  of  the  scholars  was  in  spelling.  .  .  .  Rebecca  Barrett 
(afterwards  wife  of  Hon.  Samuel  Dana)  and  myself  were  gene 
rally  at  the  head  of  the  class ;  and  there  was  more  difficulty  in 
making  either  of  us  change  places,  when  at  the  head,  than  in  run 
ning  through  all  the  rest  of  the  class.  My  last  master  here  was 
Mr.  Dakin :  and  when  I  had  got  through  the  cube -root,  and 
came  to  algebra,  he  frankly  told  me  that  he  could  go  no  farther 
with  me  ;  that  I  then  knew  as  much  as  he  did. 

"About  the  year  1792,  the  Academy  was  established  at  New 
Ipswich.  Mr.  Hubbard  was  the  preceptor,  —  a  most  worthy, 
excellent  man.  Under  his  tuition  I  was  prepared  for  entering 
college.  He  gave  exhibitions  in  very  superior  style.  At  one 
of  them,  I  performed  the  part  of  Belcour  in  the  'West  In 
dian  ; '  at  another,  that  of  Marplot  in  the  ( Busy-body.'  In 
August,  1794,  I  made  the  journey  to  Hanover  on  horseback, 

in  company  with  Charles  Barrett  and  Bemis  ;  where  I  was 

examined,  and  admitted  to  the  freshman-class  in  Dartmouth  Col 
lege.  It  had,  however,  been  decided,  previously,  that  I  should 
proceed  no  further  in  collegiate  studies  than  the  entry.  My 
brother  Samuel  was  in  trade  in  New  Ipswich,  and  had  decided 
on  trying  his  luck  in  Boston ;  and  he  proposed  I  should  accom 
pany  him.  Whether  this  proposal  was  thought  more  eligible 
than  going  to  college  by  my  father  or  myself,  I  cannot  now  say ; 
but  the  result  was,  that  it  was  determined  that  I  should  become 
a  merchant,  rather  than  a  scholar." 

In  immediate  sequence  to  the  passage  which  has  thus 
been  quoted,  is  found  the  description  of  that  first  humble 
advent  to  Boston,  which  has  already  been  sketched,  but 
which  is  altogether  too  characteristic  to  bfe  omitted  in 
its  proper  connection  and  in  his  own  words.  It  forms 


12  MEMOIR    OF    ITOX.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

the  preamble,  too,  of  a  brief  account  of  the  small  be 
ginnings  of  that  mercantile  career  to  which  his  energies 
were  henceforth  to  be  devoted,  and  which  he  was  des 
tined  to  pursue  so  successfully  for  himself,  and  with  so 
much  honor  and  advantage  to  the  community  in  which 
he  lived  and  died.  His  study  of  "  book-keeping  by 
double  entry,"  and  the  emphatic  testimony  which  he 
bears  to  its  importance ;  his  going  to  board  with  Mr. 
Sales  for  the  benefit  of  speaking  French ;  and  his  casual 
encounter  of  the  late  Mr.  Justice  Story  in  a  small-pox 
hospital,  where  they  first  formed  an  acquaintance  as 
fellow-patients,  which  ripened,  in  other  years,  into  rela 
tions  of  the  most  cordial  friendship  and  the  highest 
mutual  respect.  —  will  not  be  unobserved  by  the  reader. 
Mr.  Appleton  does  hot  dilate  on  this  latter  incident ; 
simply  referring  to  certain  "  long  discussions  with  Dr. 
Aspinwall,"  and  expressing  himself  "  highly  gratified." 
No  doubt,  the  gratification  was  mutual.  The  one  was 
always  an  excellent  listener:  the  other  was  always  an 
exuberant  talker.  If  any  thing  could  have  relieved 
the  tedium  of  that  loathsome  confinement,  it  must  have 
been  the  ardent,  hopeful,  enthusiastic  discourse  of  the 
youthful  Story.  How  little  could  either  of  them  have 
dreamed  of  the  eminence  they  were  to  attain  in  after 
life  !  Could  they  have  inoculated  each  other  at  that 
moment  with  a  little  of  their  respective  peculiarities,  it 
would  have  been  a  gain,  perhaps,  to  the  social  aptitudes 
of  both. 

"  It  was  in  October  or  November,  1794,  that  I  took  my  de 
parture  for  Boston.  At  that  time,  a  stage  ran  from  Boston  to 
Groton.  I  was  allowed  a  horse  as  far  as  Townsend,  with  my 
brother  Eben  to  take  him  back.  From  there  I  footed  it,  with  a 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    AITLETON.  18 

pocket-handkerchief  in  my  hand,  which  contained  all  my  wear 
ing  apparel  beside  what  was  on  my  back.  I  arrived  at  Groton 
early  in  the  afternoon  ;  and,  the  next  morning,  took  the  stage  for 
Boston.  We  dined  at  Concord  ;  and  I  recollect,  that,  on  passing 
Charlcstown  Bridge,  the  evening  lamps  were  lighted.  My  bro 
ther  commenced  business  in  a  small  shop  in  Cornhill ;  to  obtain 
which,  he  was  obliged  to  purchase  out  the  occupant,  Mr.  William 
P.  White.  His  business  consisted  mostly  in  purchasing  goods 
at  auction,  and  selling  them  to  country  traders,  for  cash  or  short 
credit,  for  a  small  profit.  He  soon  removed  to  a  larger  room,  — 
No.  50,  Cornhill.  My  first  boarding-place  was  with  a  very  old 
couple,  —  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bidgway,  near  Quaker  Lane.  I  here 
became  acquainted  with  Eliphalet  Hale,  whom  I  had  known  at 
New  Ipswich  Academy.  He  was  from  Jaffrey.  He  was  in  the 
service  of  John  Gushing.  From  him  I  learned  the  first  princi 
ples  of  book-keeping  by  double  entry.  With  the  assistance  of 
Mair's  Treatise,  which  I  purchased,  I  soon  opened  a  set  of  books 
for  my  brother ;  and,  from  that  time,  have  never  kept  books  in 
any  other  manner.  I  have  always  attributed  a  great  portion  of 
the  failures  which  take  place  to  a  want  of  attention,  or  a  want 
of  knowledge,  in  the  proper  principles  of  book-keeping.  In  the 
year  1798,  the  yellow-fever  prevailed  in  Boston.  I  was  permit 
ted  to  avail  myself  of  the  occasion  to  be  inoculated  for  the  small 
pox  at  Dr.  Aspinwall's  hospital,  at  Brookline.  Amongst  the 
patients  was  Joseph  Story,  with  whose  acquaintance  I  was  highly 
Gratified.  He  was  then  a  student  at  college.  His  lono-  discus- 

o  o  o 

sions  with  Dr.  Aspinwall  I  well  recollect.  In  1799,  my  brother 
made  his  first  voyage  to  Europe  ;  leaving  me  in  charge  of  his 
business,  a  part  of  which  was  to  receive  and  dispose  of  his  ship 
ments  of  goods.  After  his  return,  we  removed  to  a  warehouse 
in  State  Street.  I  became  of  age  in  October,  1800.  My  bro 
ther  proposed  that  I  should  become  a  partner  with  him,  on 
terms  which  I  considered  liberal,  and  which  I  accepted.  I  had, 
at  an  early  period,  taken  lessons  in  French.  I  afterward  went  to 
Mr.  Sales',  in  Federal  Court,  as  a  boarder,  in  company  with 
Henry  Iligginson,  for  the  benefit  of  speaking  French,  which  I 
continued  a  year  or  two." 


14  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

Mr.  Appleton  had  now  entered  on  his  majority ;  and 
opportunities  were  immediately  at  hand  for  enlarging 
his  observation  and  experience,  and  for  developing  that 
spirit  of  sturdy  self-reliance  which  was  so  leading  an 
element  of  his  character.  He  was  sent  out  to  England 
to  purchase  goods  while  Europe  was  in  a  state  of  war. 
The  news  of  peace  reached  him  on  landing,  and  changed, 
of  course,  the  whole  condition  and  current  of  trade. 
He  postpones  his  purchases,  and  travels  on  the  Conti 
nent.  Passing  through  the  various  cities  of  the  Low 
Countries,  he  examines  "  with  attention  and  interest  the 
ruins  of  Valenciennes,"  whose  long  siege  and  bombard 
ment  (it  seems)  he  had  studied  at  the  time  they  occurred, 
while  he  was  a  mere  schoolboy.  At  Paris,  he  sees  the 
treasures  of  art  which  Napoleon  had  accumulated  as 
the  spoils  of  his  marvellous  conquests  in  Italy ;  and, 
better  still,  he  sees  the  great  First  Consul  himself,  at  a 
grand  military  review,  and  at  the  exact  period*  when  his 
imperial  ambition  was  first  beginning  to  be  distinctly 
foreshadowed. 

He  returns  to  America,  and  resumes  his  mercantile 
career ;  is  happily  married,  and  soon  crosses  the  ocean 
again  for  the  health  of  his  wife ;  meets  the  late  Mr. 
Francis  C.  Lowell  in  Edinburgh,  at  the  moment  when 
he  was  first  conceiving  the  policy  to  which  the  cotton 
manufacture  of  New  England  owes  its  origin,  and  holds 
an  earnest  and  encouraging  consultation  with  him  in 
regard  to  it.  Returning  home  again,  he  makes  two 
visits  to  Washington  in  close  succession,  —  the  one  a 
casual  visit  of  curiosity,  the  other  as  a  delegate  from  the 
merchants  of  Boston,  —  but  both  of  them  bringing  him 
into  familiar  association  with  the  men  who  controlled 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  15 

the  affairs  of  the  country,  and  thus  preparing  him  to 
meet  them  afterwards  as  their  peer  and  colleague  ;  and 
all  the  while  he  is  a  merchant  still,  on  the  full  tide  of  a 
prosperous  and  laborious  business.  But  we  must  allow 
him  to  tell  this  part  of  his  own  story,  too,  in  his  own 
brief  and  simple  way ;  compressing,  as  he  does,  the  inci 
dents  of  more  than  ten  years  of  his  life  into  two  or  three 
manuscript  pages. 

"In  November,  1801,  I  embarked  for  Liverpool  for  the  pur 
pose  of  purchasing  goods  in  our  regular  business.  On  the  pilot 
coming  on  board,  we  learned  the  news  of  peace,  —  the  peace  of 
Amiens.  The  first  effect  of  this  peace  on  American  trade  was 
very  unfavorable.  It  caused  many  failures.  Caution  and  cur 
tailment  were  impressed  upon  me  in  all  my  letters  from  home. 
The  day  after  the  proclamation  of  the  ratification  of  the  peace,  in 
April,  1802,  I  set  off  from  London  for  the  Continent,  in  com 
pany  with  A.  W.  Atherton.  We  embarked  at  Harwich  for 
Helvoet  Sluys,  and  visited  the  different  cities  of  Holland  and 
Belgium.  T  examined  with  attention  and  interest  the  ruins  of 
Valenciennes,  whose  long  siege  and  bombardment  I  had  studied 
at  the  time  in  1793.  At  Brussels  we  hired  a  cabriolet,  which 
we  finally  kept  all  the  way  to  Paris,  where  we  arrived  about  the 
1st  of  June.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  Consulate;  and  Napo 
leon  never  stood  higher  in  public  estimation  than  then,  as  the 
restorer  of  peace  and  of  the  Catholic  religion.  At  this  time,  how 
ever,  his  future  ambition  was  shadowed  forth,  as  the  books  were 
opened  for  subscription  to  answer  the  question,  —  Bonaparte, 
scra-t-il  Consul  d  vie  ?  Whilst  in  Paris,  by  buying  an  eligible 
seat,  we  had  a  very  good  opportunity  to  see  Bonaparte  at  a  grand 
review  at  the  Place  Carrousel.  He  was  then  thin  and  sallow. 
The  museums  and  galleries  of  Paris  then  exhibited  the  treasures 
stolen  from  Italy  and  Belgium,  and  which  were  restored  by  the 
treaty  of  1815.  We  returned  to  England  in  July  ;  when  the  ac 
counts  from  home  came  worse  and  worse,  and  I  returned  to 
Boston  in  September.  I  continued  in  business  with  my  brother, 


1C  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

with  varied  success,  but,  on  the  whole,  with  an  average  of  pro 
sperity,  until  1809,  when  our  copartnership  was  dissolved.  My 
life  had,  thus  far,  been  a  laborious  one.  In  1806,  I  married 
Maria  Theresa,  the  oldest  daughter  of  Thomas  Gold  of  Pitts- 
field.  In  1810,  I  formed  a  copartnership  with  my  brother 
Eben  and  Mr.  Daniel  P.  Parker  ;  which  was  brought  to  a  close 
in  1813,  in  consequence  of  the  war  of  1812.  The  war,  how 
ever,  added  very  considerably  to  our  profits.  In  1810,  I  visited 
England  on  account  of  the  health  of  my  wife.  In  September, 
we  made  a  tour  into  Scotland  and  the  Lakes ;  passed  the  winter 
at  Bath  and  Clifton;  and  in  May,  1811,  embarked  for  New 
York,  where  we  arrived  in  June,  with  greatly  restored  health. 

"  Whilst  in  Edinburgh,  I  saw  a  good  deal  of  Francis  C.  Low 
ell,  Esq.,  who  was  there  with  his  family.  We  had  a  good  deal 
of  conversation  upon  the  subject  of  the  cotton  manufacture  ;  and 
he  told  me  that  lie  had  determined,  before  he  returned,  to  make 
himself  fully  acquainted  with  the  subject,  with  a  view  to  the 
introduction  of  it  at  home.  I  urged  him  to  do  so,  with  an  un 
derstanding  that  I  should  be  ready  to  co-operate  with  him  in 
such  an  undertaking.  The  war  was  declared  in  June,  1812. 
It  so  happened,  that  I  was  making  a  visit  at  Washington  whilst 
it  was  in  discussion  in  the  Senate,  in  secret  session ;  it  having 
already  passed  the  House.  I  was  invited  by  Thomas  R.  Gold, 
my  wife's  uncle,  a  member  from  the  State  of  New  York,  to  join 
his  mess,  which  was  a  large  one;  where  I  became  acquainted 
with  Harmanus  Bleeckeiyand  where  Mr.  Randolph,  then  in  the 
opposition,  was  a  frequent  visitor.  My  time  passed  then  very 
pleasantly.  I  dined  at  Mr.  Foster's,  the  British  minister's,  on 
the  Saturday  preceding  Wednesday,  the  18th  of  June,  when  the 
War  Bill  finally  passed  the  Senate.  Mr.  Foster  had  so  little 
expectation  of  that  result,  that  he  actually  purchased  an  ice 
house  on  the  day  we  dined  with  him,  and  on  which  the  Senate 
passed  a  vote  which  made  the  final  result  certain.  The  general 
opinion  amongst  those  opposed  to  the  war  was,  that  the  Execu 
tive  (Mr.  Madison)  was  pushed  up  to  make  his  war-message, 
but  that  he  relied  on  the  Senate  to  defeat  it.  The  news  of  the 
death  of  Mr.  Percival,  and  the  impending  repeal  of  the  orders 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APl'LKTON.  17 

in  council,  reached  Washington  two  days  after  the  declaration  of 
war.  The  orders  in  council  were,  in  fact,  repealed  ;  and,  in 
consequence,  large  shipments  of  goods  were  made  for  American 
account.  To  facilitate  these  shipments,  under  the  alarming 
rumors  of  war  which  came  from  America,  the  British  Govern 
ment  agreed  to  grant  licenses  or  protections  to  American  ships 
taking  such  goods,  even  should  war  between  the  two  countries 
actually  take  place.  On  the  arrival  of  these  goods  in  the  United 
States,  they  were  taken  possession  of  by  the  Government  under 
the  Non-intercourse  Act,  and  bonds  for  the  value  required  to  be 
given  before  they  could  be  delivered  to  the  owners.  The  ques 
tion  of  forfeiture  was  to  be  settled  by  Congress.  As  the  amount 
involved  was  many  millions  of  dollars,  delegates  were  appointed 
from  the  different  cities.  Mr.  John  Gore  and  myself  were  ap 
pointed  delegates  from  Boston.  I  accordingly  proceeded  to 
Washington  at  the  commencement  of  the  session,  —  December, 
1812.  Washington  Irving  (then  engaged  in  trade)  was  one  of 
the  delegates  from  New  York.  We  had  hearings  before  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  of  which  Mr.  Cheves  was 
chairman.  We  were  introduced  to  many  of  the  distinguished 
members  of  Congress  ;  as  Mr.  Clay  (Speaker),  Mr.  Calhoun,  Mr. 
Lowndes,  &c.  The  Committee  reported  against  us;  Mr.  Cheves, 
the  chairman,  dissenting.  After  a  long  debate,  the  House  de 
cided,  by  a  close  vote,  in  favor  of  cancelling  the  bonds. 

"  Whilst  at  Washington,  and  dressing  one  evening  for  the 
Naval  Ball,  an  illumination  was  discovered  to  be  lighting  up  in 
President's  Square.  It  was  soon  known  that  the  son  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  (Mr.  Hamilton)  had  arrived  in  the  city 
with  the  flag  of  the  '  Macedonian,'  captured  by  Decatur.  This 
was  afterward  carried  in  triumph  about  the  ballroom ;  which,  of 
course,  presented  a  scene  of  great  excitement." 

The  next  passage  from  the  "  Autobiographical 
Sketches,"  which  we  proceed  with  in  its  order,  is  a 
more  considerable  one  ;  embracing  an  account  of  the  first 
introduction  of  the  power-loom  into  this  country,  and  of 


18  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

the  original  establishment  of  the  cotton  manufacture  at 
Lowell.  Much  of  it,  if  not  the  whole  of  it,  has  been 
given  substantially,  if  not  in  the  same  words,  in  a 
pamphlet  which  Mr.  Appleton  published  under  his  own 
name  not  many  years  ago.  But  the  part  which  he  took 
in  so  important  an  enterprise  cannot  be  omitted  in  this 
connection  ;  nor  can  it  fairly  be  described  in  any  Ian 
guage  but  his  own.  There  is  ground  for  thinking  that 
he  attached  particular  importance  to  its  being  repro 
duced  in  any  memoir  of  which  he  might  be  the  subject; 
and  not  without  reason,  —  since  it  not  merely  unfolds 
the  marvellous  rise  and  progress  of  a  great  branch  of 
American  industry,  but  exhibits  so  strikingly  the  capa 
city  of  one  who  was  largely  concerned  in  the  undertak 
ing,  to  depict  its  various  stages  with  simplicity,  precision, 
and  perfect  candor.  The  testimony  which  he  bears  to 
the  merits  of  others,  and  especially  to  the  pre-eminent 
services  of  Mr.  Lowell,  is  of  no  small  historical  value. 
It  is  the  testimony  not  merely  of  a  witness,  but  of  an 
actor ;  and  the  seeming  disclaimer  of  any  particular 
credit  for  himself  is  altogether  in  keeping  with  his 
character,  and  furnishes  a  happy  illustration  of  his  own 
unassuming  disposition. 

"In  1813,  Mr.  F.  C.  Lowell  having,  returned  from  Europe, 
he  and  Mr.  P.  T.  Jackson  came  to  me  one  day  on  the  Exchange, 
and  stated  that  they  had  determined  to  establish  a  cotton 
manufactory,  and  that  they  had  purchased  a  water-power  in 
Waltham  (Bemis's  Paper-mills).  They  had  obtained  an  act  of 
incorporation ;  and  Mr.  Jackson  had  agreed  to  give  up  all  other 
business,  and  take  the  management  of  the  concern.  The  capital 
authorized  by  the  charter  was  four  hundred  thousand  dollars; 
but  it  was  only  intended  to  raise  one  hundred  thousand  clul- 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATTIAN    APPLKTON.  1 1) 

lars  until  the  experiment  was  fairly  tried.  Of  this  sum,  Mr. 
Lowell  and  Mr.  Jackson,  with  his  brothers,  subscribed  the 
greater  part.  They  proposed  to  me  to  take  ten  thousand  dol 
lars  of  the  stock.  I  told  them,  that,  theoretically,  I  thought  the 
business  ought  to  succeed ;  but  that  all  I  had  seen  of  its  practi 
cal  operation  was  unfavorable.  I  was  therefore  willing  to  take 
five  thousand  dollars  of  the  stock,  in  order  to  sec  the  experiment 
fairly  tried,  as  I  was  sure  it  would  be  by  Mr.  Jackson,  and 
would  make  no  complaint  if  I  lost  the  whole ;  but  that  I  should 
decline  taking  a  greater  sum.  They  observed  to  me,  that  they 
wished  to  confine  the  stock  in  as  few  hands  as  possible ;  that 
they  would  offer  the  ten  shares  to  one  person,  whom  they 
named ;  and,  if  he  declined  taking  them,  I  should  have  the  five 
shares  which  I  proposed.  They  soon  afterward  informed  me, 
that  the  party  they  applied  to  made  the  same  objection  ;  and 
they  therefore  concluded  to  divide  them  between  us.  This  was 
the  origin  of  my  connection  with  the  cotton  manufacture.  On 
the  organization  of  the  company,  I  was  appointed  one  of  the 
directors ;  and,  by  constant  communication  with  Messrs.  Lowell 
and  Jackson,  was  familiar  with  the  progress  of  the  concern. 

"  The  first  measure  was  to  secure  the  services  of  Paul  Moody, 
of  Amesbury,  whose  skill  as  a  mechanic  was  well  known  ;  and 
his  success  fully  justified  the  choice.  The  power-loom  was  at 
this  time  being  introduced  in  England  ;  but  its  construction  was 
kept  very  secret.  Mr.  Lowell  had  obtained  all  the  information 
which  was  practicable  about  it,  and  was  determined  to  perfect 
it  himself.  He  was  for  months  experimenting  at  a  store  in 
Broad  Street,  employing  a  man  to  turn  a  crank. 

"  It  was  not  until  the  building  was  completed,  and  other 
machinery  was  running,  that  the  first  loom  was  ready  for  trial. 
Many  little  matters  were  to  be  overcome  or  adjusted  before  it 
would  work  perfectly.  Mr.  Lowell  said  to  me,  that  he  did  not 
wish  me  to  see  it  until  it  was  complete,  of  which  he  would  give 
me  notice.  At  length,  the  time  arrived  \  and  he  invited  me  to 
go  out  with  him,  and  see  the  loom  operate.  I  well  recollect 
the  state  of  satisfaction  and  admiration  with  which  we  sat  by  the 
hour  watching  the  beautiful  movement  of  this  new  and  wonder- 


20  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

ful  machine,  destined,  as  it  evidently  was,  to  change  the  cha 
racter  of  all  textile  industry.  This  was,  I  think,  in  the  autumn 
of  1814.  Mr.  Lowell's  loom  was  different  in  several  particulars 
from  the  English  loom,  which  was  afterward  made  public.  The 
introduction  of  the  power-loom  made  several  other  changes 
necessary  in  the  process  of  weaving.  The  first  was  in  the  dress 
ing  ;  for  which  Mr.  Horrocks,  of  Stockport,  obtained  a  patent, 
and  of  which  Mr.  Lowell  obtained  a  drawing.  On  putting  it  in 
operation,  an  essential  improvement  was  made  upon  it,  by  which 
its  efficiency  was  more  than  doubled.  This  Waltham  dressing- 
machine  continues  in  use,  with  little  change,  from  that  time.  The 
stop-motion  of  the  machine  for  winding  on  the  beams  for  dress 
ing  was  original  with  this  company.  The  greatest  improvement 
was  in  the  double  speeder.  The  original  fly-frame  was  made  on 
no  fixed  principle  for  regulating  the  changing  movements  neces 
sary  in  the  process  of  filling  a  spool.  Mr.  Lowell  undertook  to 
make  the  numerous  mathematical  calculations  necessary  to  per 
fect  these  complicated  movements,  which  occupied  him  constantly 
for  more  than  a  week.  Mr.  Moody  carried  them  into  effect  by 
constructing  the  machinery  in  conformity.  Several  trials  at  law 
were  made  under  this  patent ;  involving  the  nice  question, 
whether  a  mathematical  calculation  could  be  the  subject  of  a 
patent.  The  last  great  improvement  consisted  in  a  more  slack 
spinning  on  throstle  spindles  ;  and  the  spinning  of  filling  directly 
on  the  cops,  without  the  process  of  winding. 

"  A  pleasant  anecdote  is  connected  with  this  last  invention. 
Mr.  Shepherd,  of  Taunton,  had  a  patent  for  a  winding-machine, 
which  was  considered  the  best  extant.  Mr.  Lowell  was  chaffer 
ing  with  him  about  purchasing  the  right  of  using  them  on  a 
large  scale,  offering  him  some  reduction  from  the  price  named. 
Mr.  Shepherd  refused ;  saying,  '  You  must  have  them  :  you 
know  you  cannot  do  without  them  ;  can  you,  Mr.  Moody  ? ' 
Mr.  Moody  replied,  '  1  am  just  thinking  that  I  can  spin  the 
cops  direct  upon  the  bobbin.'  —  '  You  be  hanged  ! '  said  Mr.  S.  : 
1  well,  I  accept  your  offer.'  —  (  No,'  said  Mr.  Lowell :  '  it  is  too 
late.'  From  the  first  starting  of  the  first  power-loom,  there  was 
no  hesitation  or  doubt  about  the  success  of  this  manufacture. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    AITLETON.  21 

The  full  capital  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  soon  filled 
up  and  expended ;  and  an  addition  of  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  was  afterwards  made  by  the  purchase  of  the  place  below, 
in  Water  town. 

"  After  the  peace  in  1815,  I  formed  a  new  copartnership 
with  Mr.  Benjamin  C.  Ward.  I  put  in  the  capital,  with  the 
understanding  that  I  was  not  to  perform  any  of  the  labor  of 
carrying  011  the  business.  I  had  acquired  a  fortune  sufficient  for 
my  moderate  desires;  but  I  was  unwilling  to  separate  myself 
entirely  from  the  operations  of  business.  So  far  as  the  original 
object  of  this  copartnership  was  concerned,  —  the  importation 
of  British  goods,  —  it  was  unsuccessful,  as  I  never  recovered 
back  my  capital  with  simple  interest ;  but  an  accidental  circum 
stance  occasioned  its  continuance  until  1830.  At  the  time  the 
Waltham  Company  first  began  to  produce  cloth,  there  was  but 
one  place  at  which  domestic  goods  were  sold :  this  was  at  a 
shop  in  Cornhill,  kept  by  Mr.  Isaac  Bowers,  or  rather  by 
Mrs.  Bowers.  Accordingly,  the  first  goods  made  were  sent 
to  Mrs.  Bowers.  As  there  was,  at  this  time,  only  one  loom  in 
operation,  the  quantity  accumulating  was  not  very  great.  How 
ever,  one  day  Mr.  Lowell  said  to  me,  that  there  was  one  diffi 
culty  which  he  had  not  apprehended  :  the  goods  would  not  sell. 
We  went  together  to  see  Mrs.  Bowers.  She  said  everybody 
praised  the  goods,  and  no  objection  was  made  to  the  price ;  but 
still  they  made  no  sales.  I  told  Mr.  Lowell,  the  next  time  they 
sent  a  parcel  to  town,  to  send  them  to  the  store  of  B.  C.  Ward 
and  Co.,  and  I  would  see  what  could  be  done. 

"  The  article  first  made  at  Watertown  was  precisely  the  arti 
cle  of  which  a  large  portion  of  the  cotton  manufacture  of  the 
country  has  continued  to  consist,  —  a  heavy  sheeting  of  No.  14 
yarn,  thirty-seven  inches  wide,  forty-four  picks  to  the  inch,  and 
weighing  something  less  than  three  yards  to  the  pound.  That 
it  should  have  been  so  well  suited  to  the  public  demand  was 
matter  of  accident.  At  that  time,  it  was  supposed  no  quantity  of 
cottons-  could  be  sold  without  being  bleached ;  and  the  idea  was 
to  imitate  the  yard-wide  goods  of  India.  Mr.  Lowell  informed 
me  that  he  would  be  satisfied  with  twenty-five  cents  the  yard  for 


22  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

the  goods,  although  the  nominal  price  was  higher.  I  soon  found 
a  purchaser  for  the  first  parcel  in  Mr.  Forsaith,  an  auctioneer  ; 
who  sold  them  at  auction  at  once,  at  something  over  thirty  cents. 
We  continued  to  sell  them  at  auction  for  some  time,  with  little 
variation  of  the  price.  This  circumstance  led  to  the  company  of 
33.  C.  Ward  and  Co.  becoming  permanently  the  selling  agents. 
In  the  first  instance,  I  found  an  interesting  and  agreeable  occu 
pation  in  paying  attention  to  the  sales  ;  and  made  lip  the  first 
account  with  a  charge  of  one  per  cent  commission,  not  as  an 
adequate  mercantile  commission,  but  satisfactory  under  the  cir 
cumstances.  This  rate  of  commission  was  continued,  and  finally 
became  the  established  rate,  under  the  great  increase  of  the 
manufacture.  Thus  what  was  at  the  commencement  rather 
unreasonably  low,  became,  when  the  amount  of  sales  concen 
trated  in  single  houses  amounted  to  millions  of  dollars,  a  desira 
ble  and  profitable  business. 

"Under  the  influence  of  the  war  of  1812,  the  manufacture 
of  cotton  had  greatly  increased,  especially  in  Rhode  Island,  but 
in  a  very  imperfect  manner.  The  effect  of  the  peace  of  1815 
was  ruinous  to  these  manufacturers.  In  1816,  a  new  tariff  was 
to  be  made.  The  Rhode-Island  manufacturers  were  clamorous 
for  a  very  high  specific  duty.  Mr.  Lowell  was  at  Washing 
ton  for  a  considerable  time  during  the  session  of  Congress.  His 
views  on  the  tariff  were  much  more  moderate;  and  he  finally 
brought  Mr.  Lowndes  and  Mr.  Calhoun  to  support  the  minimum 
of  six  and  a  quarter  cents  the  square  yard,  which  was  carried. 
In  June,  1816,  Mr.  Lowell  having  invited  me  to  make  a  visit  to 
Rhode  Island  with  him  in  .order  to  see  the  actual  state  of  the 
manufacture,  I  was  very  happy  to  accept  his  proposition.  At 
this  time,  the  success  of  the  power-loom  at  Waltham  was  no 
longer  matter  of  speculation  or  opinion  :  it  was  a  settled  fact. 

"  We  proceeded  to  Pawtucket.  We  called  on  Mr.  Wilkinson, 
the  maker  of  machinery.  He  took  us  into  his  establishment, 
—  a  large  one.  All  was  silent,  —  not  a  wheel  in  motion,  not  a 
man  to  be  seen.  He  informed  us  that  there  was  not  a  spindle 
running  in  Pawtucket :  except  a  few  in  Slater's  old  mill,  making 
yarns,  all  was  dead  and  still.  In  reply  to  questions  from  Mr. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  23 

Lowell,  he  stated,  that,  during  the  war,  the  profits  of  manufactur 
ing  were  so  great,  that  the  inquiry  was  never  made,  whether  any 
improvement  could  be  made  in  machinery,  but  how  soon  it  could 
be  turned  out.  We  saw  several  manufacturers  :  they  were  all 
sad  and  despairing.  Mr.  Lowell  endeavored  to  assure  them  that 
the  adoption  of  the  power-loom  would  put  a  new  face  upon  the 
manufacture ;  but  they  were  incredulous  :  it  might  be  so ;  but 
they  were  not  disposed  to  believe  it.  We  proceeded  to  Provi 
dence,  and  returned  by  the  way  of  Taunton.  We  there  stopped 
at  the  factory  of  Mr.  Shepherd,  who  had  put  a  power-loom  in 
operation,  acting  vertically  :  that  is  to  say,  the  web  running  up 
and  down,  and  the  lathe  playing  in  the  same  way.  It  was  evi 
dent  that  it  could  not  succeed.  By  degrees,  however,  the 
manufacturers  woke  up  to  the  fact,  that  the  power-loom  was  an 
instrument  which  changed  the  whole  character  of  the  manufac- 

O 

ture  ;  and  that,  by  adopting  the  other  improvements  which  had 
been  made  in  machinery,  the  tariff  of  1816  was  sufficiently  pro 
tective.  Mr.  Lowell  adopted  an  entire  new  arrangement,  iu 
order  to  save  labor  in  passing  from  one  process  to  another ;  and 
in  so  arranging  all  the  machinery,  that  the  entire  product  should 
be  converted  into  cloth  within  the  mill. 

"It  is  remarkable  how  few  changes,  in  this  respect,  have 
since  been  made  from  those  established  by  him  in  the  first  mill 
built  in  Waltham.  It  is  also  remarkable  how  accurate  were  his 
calculations  as  to  the  expense  at  which  goods  could  be  made, 
lie  used  to  say,  that  the  only  circumstance  which  made  him 
distrust  his  calculations  was,  that  he  could  bring  them  to  no 
other  result  but  one  which  was  too  favorable  to  be  credible. 
His  calculations,  however,  did  not  lead  him  so  far  as  to  make 
him  imagine  that  the  same  goods  which  were  then  selling  at 

rj  o  o 

thirty  cents  a  yard,  would,  at  any  time,  be  sold  at  six  cents,  and 
without  a  loss  to  the  manufacturer,  as  has  since  been  done.  He 
died  in  1819,  beloved  and  respected  by  all  who  knew  him. 
He  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  having  introduced  the  new  system 
in  the  cotton  manufacture,  under  which  it  has  grown  up  so 
rapidly;  for,  although  Messrs.  Jackson  and  Moody  were  men  of 
unsurpassed  energy  and  talent  in  their  way,  it  was  Mr.  Lowell 


24  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

who  was  the  informing  soul,  which  gave  direction  and  form  to 
the  whole  proceeding. 

"  The  success  of  the  Waltham  Company  made  me  desirous  of 
extending  my  interest  in  the  same  direction.  I  was  of  opinion, 
that  the  time  had  arrived  when  the  manufacture  and  printing  of 
calicoes  might  he  successfully  introduced  in  this  country.  In. 
this  opinion,  Mr.  Jackson  coincided ;  and  we  set  about  discover 
ing  a  water-power.  At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Charles  II. 
Atherton  of  Amherst,  N.  H.,  we  met  him  at  -a  fall  of  the 
Souhegan  River,  about  six  miles  from  its  entrance  into  the 
Merrimack ;  but  the  power  Avas  insufficient  for  our  purpose. 
This  was  in  the  summer  of  1821.  In  returning,  we  passed  the 
Nashua  River,  without  being  aware  of  the  existence  of  the  fall 
which  has  since  been  made  the  source  of  so  much  power  by 
the  Nashua  Company.  We  sa\v  a  small  gristmill  standing  in  the 
meadow  near  the  road,  with  a  dam  of  some  six  or  seven  feet. 
Soon  after  our  return,  I  was  at  Waltham  one  day  ;  when  I  was 
informed  that  Mr.  Moody  had  lately  been  at  Salisbury,  where 
Mr.  Worthen,  his  old  partner,  said  to  him,  'I  hear,  Messrs. 
Jackson  and  Appleton  are  looking  out  for  water-power :  why 
don't  they  buy  up  the  Pawtucket  Canal  ?  that  would  give  them 
the  whole  power  of  the  Merrimack,  with  a  fall  of  thirty  feet.' 
On  the  strength  of  this,  Mr.  Moody  had  returned  that  way,  and 
was  satisfied  with  the  extent  of  the  power,  and  that  Mr.  Jack 
son  was  making  inquiries  on  the  subject.  Mr.  Jackson  soon 
after  called  on  me,  and  informed  me  that  he  had  had  a  corre 
spondence  with  Mr.  Clark  of  Newburyport,  the  agent  of  the 
Pawtucket  Company,  and  had  ascertained  that  the  stock  of  that 
company,  and  the  lands  necessary  for  using  the  water-power, 
could  be  purchased ;  and  asked  me  what  I  thought  of  taking 
hold  of  it.  He  stated  that  his  engagements  at  Waltham  would 
not  permit  him  to  take  the  management  of  a  new  concern  ;  but 
he  mentioned  Mr.  Kirk  Boott  as  having  expressed  a  wish  to  take 
the  management  of  an  active  manufacturing  establishment,  and 
that  he  had  confidence  in  his  possessing  the  proper  talent  for  it. 
After  a  discussion,  it  was  agreed  that  he  should  consult  Mr. 
Boott ;  and  that,  if  he  would  join  us,  we  would  go  on  with  it. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    A1TLKTON.  25 

He  went  at  once  to  see  Mr.  Boott,  and  soon  returned  to  inform 
me  that  Mr.  Boott  entered  heartily  into  the  project;  and  we  set 
about  making  the  purchases  without  delay.  Until  these  were 
made,  it  was  necessary  to  confine  all  knowledge  of  the  project 
to  our  own  three  hosoms.  Mr.  Clark  was  employed  to  purchase 
the  necessary  lands,  and  such  shares  in  the  canal  as  were  within 
his  reach  ;  whilst  Mr.  Henry  Andrews  was  employed  in  purchas 
ing  up  the  shares  owned  in  Boston.  I  recollect  the  first  inter 
view  with  Mr.  Clark,  at  which  he  exhibited  a  rough  sketch  of 
the  canal  and  adjoining  lands,  with  the  prices  which  he  had 
ascertained  they  could  be  purchased  for ;  and  he  was  directed 
to  go  on  and  complete  the  purchases,  taking  the  deeds  in  his 
own  name,  in  order  to  prevent  the  project  taking  wind  prema 
turely.  The  purchases  were  made  accordingly  for  our  equal 
joint  account ;  each  of  us  furnishing  funds  as  required  to 
Mr.  Boott,  who  kept  the  accounts.  Formal  articles  of  associa 
tion  were  then  drawn  up.  They  bear  date  Dec.  1,  1821  ;  and 
are  recorded  in  the  records  of  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing 

o 

Company,  of  which  they  form  the  germ.  The  six  hundred 
shares  were  thus  subscribed  :  — 


Kirk  Boott  and  J.  W.  Boott 180 

N.  Appleton 180 

P.  T.  Jackson ." 180 

Paul  Moody 60 

GOO 

"  The  Act  of  Incorporation  of  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing 
Company  bears  date  5th  of  February,  1822;  recognizing  the 
original  association  as  the  basis  of  the  company.  Our  first  visit 
to  the  spot  was  in  the  month  of  November,  1821,  when  a  slight 
snow  covered  the  ground.  The  party  consisted  of  P.  T.  Jack 
son,  Kirk  Boott,  Warren  Dutton,  Paul  Moody,  John  W.  Boott, 
and  myself.  We  perambulated  the  grounds,  and  scanned  the 
capabilities  of  the  place ;  and  the  remark  was  made,  that  some 
of  us  might  live  to  see  the  place  contain  twenty  thousand  inha 
bitants. 


20  MEMOIR    OF    HOX.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

"  On  our  first  organization,  we  allowed  Mr.  Moody  to  be 
interested  to  the  extent  of  ten  per  cent,  or  sixty  out  of  six 
hundred  shares.  We  soon  after  made  an  arrangement  with  the 
Waltham  Company,  making  a  mutual  interest  between  the  two 
companies.  The  canal  was  a  work  of  great  labor.  The  first 
water-wheel  of  the  Mcrrimack  Manufacturing  Company  was  set 
in  motion  on  the  1st  of  September,  1823.  The  business  of 
printing  calicoes  was  wholly  new  in  this  country.  It  is  true, 
that,  after  it  was  known  that  this  concern  was  going  into  opera 
tion  for  that  purpose,  two  other  companies  were  got  up,  —  one 
at  Dover,  N.H.  ;  the  other  at  Taunton,  —  in  both  of  which, 
goods  were  probably  printed  before  they  were  by  the  Merrimack 
Company. 

"  The  bringing  the  business  of  printing  to  any  degree  of  per 
fection  was  a  matter  of  difficulty  and  time.  Mr.  Allen  Pollock 
thought  himself  competent  to  manage  it,  and  was  employed  for 
some  time.  Through  the  good  offices  of  Mr.  Timothy  Wiggin, 
Mr.  Prince,  of  Manchester,  was  induced  to  come  out,  with  his 
family;  and  has  remained  at  the  head  of  the  establishment  up  to 
the  present  period  (1855). 

"  The  engraving  of  cylinders  was  a  most  important  part  of 
the  process ;  and  Mr.  Boott  made  one  voyage  to  England  solely 
for  the  purpose  of  engaging  engravers.  It  was  then  kept  a  very 
close  mystery.  Mr.  Dana  was  employed  as  chemist.  Through 
the  superior  skill  and  talent  of  Messrs.  Boott,  Prince,  and 
Dana,  the  company  was  brought  to  the  highest  degree  of  success. 
In  the  mean  time,  Mr.  Moody  was  transferred  from  Waltham  to 
this  place,  having  charge  of  the  manufacture  of  machinery.  Mr. 
Worthen  had  been  employed  at  an  early  day.  He  was  a  man  of 
superior  mechanical  genius,  and  his  death  was  deeply  regretted. 
The  capital  of  the  Merrimack  Company  was  gradually  increased, 
a  division  of  the  property  betwixt  that  company  and  the  Pro 
prietors  of  the  Locks  and  Canals  was  made,  new  companies  were 
established,  until  this  new  creation  became  a  city,  by  the  name 
of  Lowell.  I  may,  perhaps,  claim  having  given  it  the  name. 
Several  names  had  been  suggested,  but  nothing  fixed  on.  On 
meeting  Mr.  Boott  one  day,  he  said  to  me  that  the  committee 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATFIAN    APPLETON.  27 

were  ready  to  report  the  bill  (in  the  Legislature).  It  only 
remained  to  fill  the  blank  with  the  name.  He  said  he  consi 
dered  it  narrowed  down  to  two,  —  Lowell  or  Derby.  I  said 
to  him,  '  Then  Lowell,  by  all  means ; '  and  Lowell  it  was." 

From  the  intimate  acquaintance  which  Mr.  Appleton 
had  thus  acquired  with  the  history  of  the  American  cot 
ton  manufacture,  and  with  all  the  details  of  its  machinery 
and  management  from  its  earliest  establishment  in  New 
England,  he  derived  peculiar  qualifications  for  the 
public  services  which  he  was  soon  called  upon  to 
render.  No  questions  which  have  ever  arisen  in  our 
country  have  given  occasion  to  more  important  discus 
sions,  or  more  protracted  and  agitating  controversies, 
than  those  which  have  related  to  our  revenue  system ; 
and  no  feature  of  that  system  has  been  so  frequently 
and  so  violently  contested  as  that  which  looked  to  the 
encouragement  of  the  manufacture  of  cotton  on  Ame 
rican  soil.  It  has  divided  parties ;  it  has  arrayed  State 
against  State,  and  section  against  section ;  it  has  shaken 
the  republic  to  its  foundation.  The  deplorable  conflict 
which  is  now  threatening  to  rend  the  Union  asunder 
for  ever,  owes  not  a  little  of  its  original  impulse  to  the 
jealousies  and  antipathies  which  have  arisen  from  a 
fancied  antagonism  between  the  interests  of  the  cotton- 
growers  of  the  South  and  the  cotton-spinners  of  the 
North.  It  was  in  connection  with  the  alleged  injustice 
of  a  discriminating  tariff,  and  during  the  very  debate  in 
which  Mr.  Appleton  first  took  a  prominent  part  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  that  Mr.  McDuffie  origi 
nally  promulgated  the  idea  of  "  a  glorious  rebellion,"  by 
which  South  Carolina  was  to  be  freed  from  oppression. 


•   28  MEMOIR   OF    TTON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

Few  men  were  in  the  way  of  doing  more  to  counteract 
this  delusion,  at  this  memorable  period  of  its  primary 
development,  than  Mr.  Appleton;  and  no  man  im 
proved  his  opportunities  to  better  advantage.  In  the 
public  journals,  in  commercial  dictionaries  or  conver 
sations-lexicons,  in  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  his  pen  and  his 
voice  were  always  ready  and  always  effective  in  demon 
strating  the  fallacies  of  a  doctrine,  which  would  long  ago 
have  surrendered  to  Great  Britain  the  undisputed  mo 
nopoly  of  those  textile  fabrics  by  which  the  world  was 
to  be  clothed,  and  for  which  the  raw  material  was  fur 
nished,  in  so  large  a  part,  by  the  Southern  States.  If 
the  forty-bale  theory  was  at  last  demolished,  it  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say,  that  the  weaver's  beam  which  dealt 
the  sturdiest  blows,  and  did  the  largest  share  in  the 
demolition,  was  wielded  by  the  arm  of  Nathan  Apple- 
ton. 

He  entered  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  in  1815, 
and  was  re-elected  one  of  the  Boston  representatives  in 
1816,  1821,  1823,  1824,  and  1827.  In  1830,  he  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States,  after  one  of  the  most  exciting  and 
closely  contested  political  struggles  which  Boston  has 
ever  witnessed.  Declining  a  re-election  in  1832,  he  was 
induced  to  resume  the  Boston  seat  in  Congress,  for  a 
feAV  months,  in  1842.  It  so  happened,  that  some  of  the 
most  important  discussions  which  have  ever  occurred  on 
the  subject  of  the  tariff,  in  our  National  Legislature, 
were  exactly  coincident  with  his  terms  of  service.  Per 
haps  it  would  be  more  just  to  say,  that  he  was  selected 


AIKAIOJU    OF    HUN.    NATFIAN    AlM'hKTUN.  *2(J 

for  the  candidacy,  and  induced  to  accept  it,  at  these 
particular  times,  with  a  special  view  to  his  ability  to 
grapple  with  the  questions  which  were  then  plainly 
impending.  Certain  it  is,  he  was  there  at  the  right 
moment,  both  for  his  own  reputation,  for  the  advantage 
of  his  constituents,  and,  still  more,  for  the  right  under 
standing  of  those  great  problems  of  public  policy  which 
his  personal  experience  and  practical  sense  had  pecu 
liarly  fitted  him  to  deal  with.  But  let  us  no  longer 
detain  our  readers  from  his  own  plain  and  modest 
account  of  this  part  of  his  career,  and  of  some  of  the 
services  which  he  rendered  to  the  cause  of  a  discriminat 
ing  revenue  system. 

"  At  the  request  of  Dr.  Lieber,  I  furnished  him  an  article  on 
the  cotton  manufacture,  for  his  Dictionary.  Mr.  Condy  Raguet, 
editor  of  the  '  Banner  of  the  Constitution,'  in  Philadelphia, 
ridiculed  the  idea  therein  expressed,  that  we  could  compete  with 
Great  Britain  in  the  article  of  coarse  cottons  for  exportation. 
This  led  to  an  anonymous  correspondence,  and  the  acceptance, 
on  his  part,  of  a  proposition  which  I  made  him,  to  furnish  him 
some  articles  on  the  cotton  manufacture ;  which  was  accordingly 
done  in  six  numbers,  signed  '  Statist,'  —  the  last  dated  Aug.  31, 
1831.  In  the  first  number,  I  stated  that  the  fact  of  a  constantly 
increasing  export  of  these  goods  for  a  number  of  years,  although 
then  only  amounting  to  a  million  of  dollars,  was  proof  of  the 
fact,  that  we  did  furnish  them  in  a  fair  competition  with  the  Bri 
tish.  The  fact  is  adverted  to,  that  we  had  introduced  a  manu 
facture  which  was  a  new  article  in  commerce,  containing  a  greater 
quantity  of  the  raw  material,  with  a  less  proportion  of  labor, 
than  any  thing  then  in  use,  and  of  course  furnishing  a  cheaper 
and  more  economical  article  of  general  consumption.  It  was 
also  contended,  that  we  had,  on  the  whole,  a  balance  of  advan 
tages  over  England  in  this  manufacture  :  which  consisted,  first, 
in  the  greater  cheapness  of  water-power  over  steam,  estimated 


30  MEMOIR   OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

as  six  hundred  to  three  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty ;  and, 
second,  in  the  advantage  of  having  the  raw  material  nearer  at 
hand,  estimated  at  two  cents  the  pound.  (Cotton  was  then 
subject  to  a  duty  in  England  of  five-eighths  of  a  penny  per 
pound.)  Against  these  advantages,  the  only  offset  was  a  differ 
ence  in  the  cost  of  machinery ;  which  was  estimated  to  cost  fifty 
per  cent  more  in  the  United  States  than  in  England. 

"  The  second  number  took  up  the  subject  of  labor,  and  gave 
documents  to  prove  that  the  price  then  paid  for  labor  in  the 
cotton  manufacture  in  England  was  as  great  or  greater  than  was 
paid  in  the  United  States.  This  was  owing  to  our  employing 
females  only,  whilst  the  English  employed  a  large  proportion  of 
men,  especially  as  mule- spinners,  earning  very  high  wages  ; 
whilst  we  had  improved  throstle- spinning,  operated  wholly  by 
females,  so  as  to  supersede,  in  a  great  measure,  the  use  of  mules. 
All  this  has  been  changed  since  by  the  introduction  of  self-acting 
mules. 

"  Mr.  Raguet  remarks,  that '  the  views  presented  in  these  two 
communications  are  calculated  to  make  a  stirring  impression  upon 
public  opinion.  To  disprove  the  positions  of  our  correspondent 
will  require  the  aid  of  some  of  our  mercantile  friends.'  He  finally 
states  his  readiness  to  publish  the  opinions  of  '  Statist '  upon  the 
tariff,  as  well  as  information  upon  the  finer  branches  of  the  cotton 
manufacture. 

"  In  the  third  and  fourth  numbers,  l  Statist '  proceeds  to  de 
scribe  the  progress  of  cotton  manufacture,  which  he  finally 
divides  into  three  classes  :  viz.,  first,  the  coarse  goods  which  we 
were  then  exporting  in  considerable  quantities;  second,  the  finer 
descriptions  of  plain  goods,  as  shirtings  and  sheetings,  in  which 
our  own  consumption  was  well  supplied  by  our  own  manufacture  ; 
and,  third,  printed  calicoes  and  other  colored  goods,  of  which  we 
were  then  supposed  to  manufacture  something  more  than  one- 
half  our  consumption.  The  different  bearing  of  the  tariff  on 
these  classes  is  pointed  out,  —  on  the  first,  merely  nominal ;  on  the 
second,  very  trifling.  '  It  is  in  the  higher  branches  of  the  third 
class  only  that  the  question  of  a  reduction  of  duty  pinches. 
Here  the  two  contending  tides  of  importation  and  manufacture 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON.  31 

meet :  here  is  the  sole  action  of  the  tariff.'  In  these  and  in 
No.  5,  the  question  of  the  protective  policy  is  discussed  ;  and 
a  good  deal  of  stress  is  laid  on  the  impolicy  of  subjecting  our 
industry  to  the  fluctuations  taking  place  in  other  countries,  of 
which  the  revulsion  of  1829,  in  England,  furnished  a  striking 
example. 

"  These  speculations  appear  to  have  been  rather  distasteful  to 
Mr.  Raguet ;  for  he  declined  to  publish  any  thing  further  from 
the  writer,  unless  he  would  avow  his  name,  as  he  doubted  the 
correctness  of  his  statement  of  the  cost  of  manufacturing  coarse 
cottons.  In  my  rejoinder,  I  gave  him  the  abstract  cost  of  the 
manufacture  in  an  establishment,  with  a  sample  of  the  goods 
made,  and  a  personal  reference  to  a  merchant  in  Philadelphia. 
He,  in  reply,  says  that  a  manufacturer  to  whom  he  showed  the 
sample  could  not  believe  that  such  goods  could  be  made  for 
seven  and  one-third  cents  the  pound,  as  I  had  stated ;  but,  in 
consequence  of  what  he  considered  concessions  on  my  part,  he 
invited  me  to  a  renewal  of  the  correspondence.  This  I  did  not 
think  proper  to  do ;  and  so  the  correspondence  ended.  It  will 
be  seen  that  I  took  the  same  ground,  in  respect  to  coarse  cottons, 
in  the  first  speech  which  I  made  in  Congress. 

"About  the  year  1820,  I  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Legislature,  for  Boston,  and  at  intervals  for  several 
years.  At  this  time,  party-spirit  ran  very  low  ;  and  at  last, 
under  the  administration  of  Mr.  Monroe,  may  be  fairly  said  to 
have  died  out.  With  a  view  to  sustain  John  Quincy  Adams  for 
the  Presidency,  a  final  amalgamation  of  parties  took  place.  I 
was  present  at  the  last  caucus  of  the  Federal  members  of  the 
Legislature,  at  which  the  union  was  agreed  to,  which  was  con 
summated  by  the  election  of  Levi  Lincoln  as  Governor.  I  well 
recollect  the  first  union  caucus  at  the  Exchange  Coffee  House, 
when  it  was  amusing  to  see  William  Sullivan  and  Benjamin 
Russell  harmonize  with  Major  Melville  and  Ebenczer  Clough. 
This  harmony  was  somewhat  disturbed  by  a  new  party,  at  first 
known  as  the  Crawford  party,  afterward  resolved  into  the  all- 
powerful  Jackson  party.  My  first  speech  in  public  was  in 
opposition  to  a  specific  tax  on  insurance-companies.  I  was  for 


32  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETOX. 

several  years  Chairman  of  the   Committee   of  Finance,  whose 
most  important  duty  was  the  making  of  the  tax-bill. 

"  In  1828,  Mr.  Calhoun,  of  Springfield,  introduced  a  resolu 
tion  approving  the  protective  system,  and  moved  a  very  early 
day  for  its  consideration.  I  requested  a  later  one  ;  but,  expect 
ing  I  should  oppose  it,  he  declined.  A  friend,  however,  wishing 
to  give  me  a  chance  to  speak  upon  it,  got  a  reconsideration  carried. 
The  speech  which  I  made  was  any  thing  but  an  ultra  one,  and 
was  very  generally  approved.  In  1830,  it  was  proposed  to  me 
to  stand  as  candidate  for  Congress.  I  hesitated  a  good  deal 
before  I  consented ;  which  I  did  eventually,  and  was  elected 
after  a  close  contest.  My  competitor  was  Henry  Lee,  Esq. ;  and 
the  election  turned  upon  free  trade  or  the  protective  principle. 
I  took  my  scat  in  the  Twenty-second  Congress,  December,  1831. 
Mr.  Stevenson  was  chosen  Speaker,  and,  in  the  appointment  of 
the  committees,  placed  me  on  that  of  Invalid  Pensions.  Con 
sidering  that  I  was  the  representative  of  a  greater  commercial 
interest  than  any  other  individual  in  the  House,  and  withal  a 
practical  merchant,  this  appointment  could  be  considered  in  no 
other  light  than  a  spiteful  revenge  upon  the  city  of  Boston  for 
having  disappointed  the  administration  in  the  choice  of  the 
representative.  I  took  lodgings  at  Gadsby's,  in  company  with 
Mr.  Webster;  each  of  us  having  one  of  the  front  parlors,  in 
which  we  took  our  meals  together  every  alternate  Aveek.  At  an 
early  day  in  the  session,  Mr.  Bouldin,  of  Virginia,  introduced  a 
resolution  of  inquiry  as  to  the  nature  of  the  minimums  recog 
nized  in  our  revenue-laws.  A  sort  of  desultory  debate,  during 
the  morning  hour,  had  gone  on  for  several  weeks ;  when  it 
occurred  to  me  as  an  occasion  on  which  I  might  make  a  short 
speech.  On  mentioning  it  to  Mr.  Webster,  he  encouraged  me 
to  do  so,  and  put  me  in  the  way  of  getting  the  information 
which  I  wanted.  The  subject  came  up  again  on  the  21st  of 
January,  when  Mr.  McDuffie  made  a  most  strenuous  appeal 
against  further  debate  on  a  mere  question  of  inquiry ;  but,  being- 
prepared,  I  did  not  choose  to  let  the  opportunity  go  by.  I 
undertook  to  show  that  South  Carolina  was  the  author  of  the 
system  of  minimums,  which  was  only  another  name  for  specific 


MEMOIR    OF   HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON.  33 

duties,  and  a  system  capable  of  defence.  It  was  introduced  by 
Mr.  Lowndes,  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  in  1816.  I  took  the  occasion  to  state,  that  we  could 
convert  a  pound  of  our  cotton  into  the  common  cloth  we 
were  making  for  less  money  than  the  British  could  do.  This 
being  a  fact  well  known  to  me,  the  statement  was  made  advi 
sedly,  wishing  the  matter  to  stand  on  its  true  basis ;  but,  being 
so  contrary  to  the  general  impression,  it  quite  alarmed  some  of 
the  friends  of  the  protective  system,  as  I  learned  afterwards. 
My  speech  gave  a  new  turn  to  the  debate.  It  brought  up 
McDuffie  and  Cambreling,  and  the  debate  occupied  the  whole 
day.  The  vote  showed  a  majority  of  about  twenty  in  favor  of 
the  protective  system. 

"  The  great  business  of  that  session  was  the  framing  a  new 
tariff.  The  object  was  greatly  to  reduce  the  revenue,  the  debt 
being  paid  off,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  continue  the  principle 
of  protecting  American  industry.  There  were  several  caucuses  of 
the  friends  of  protection.  At  one  of  them,  Governor  Davis  and 
myself  were  appointed  a  committee  to  frame  such  a  tariff.  We 
accordingly  framed  one,  making  every  thing  free  which  did  not 
interfere  with  our  own  productions.  The  subject  was  finally 
referred,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  the  Committee  on 
Manufactures,  of  which  John  Q.  Adams  was  chairman.  He 
applied  to  us  for  our  project,  which  was  substantially  adopted  in 
the  tariff  of  1832. 

"  The  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  of  which  Mr.  McDuffic 
was  chairman,  made  a  report  at  an  early  period  of  the  session, 
very  elaborate  and  able ;  setting  forth  the  theory,  that  all  duties 
on  imports  were  essentially  and  absolutely  taxes  upon  the  ex 
ports  for  which  they  were  exchanged,  better  known  as  the  forty- 
bale  theory.  As  the  argument  was  very  plausible  and  specious, 
I  determined  to  answer  it,  whenever  the  subject  came  up  for 
discussion.  With  this  view,  I  prepared  an  analysis  of  it  with  a 
good  deal  of  care  and  time.  When  the  subject  of  the  tarifl 
came  up,  Mr.  McDuffie  opened  the  discussion  with  an  elaborate 
speech,  especially  addressed  to  me.  He  chose  a  place  to  deliver 
it  directly  by  my  side  ;  and  made  it  exceedingly  personal,  on  the 


34  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   NATHAN   APPLETON. 

ground  that  we  were  rival  manufacturers,  —  one  operating  with 
hoes  and  spades,  the  other  with  spindles  and  shuttles.  As  his 
speech  contained  nothing  which  was  not  set  forth  in  his  report, 
I  determined  to  follow  him  at  once  with  my  answer ;  and,  with 
this  view,  endeavored  to  get  the  floor.  It  was  given  to  Mr. 
Crawford,  of  Pennsylvania ;  but,  when  he  got  through,  the  next 
morning,  I  obtained  it.  It  was  on  the  30th  of  May,  1832.  It 
so  happened  that  Mr.  McDuffie  was  not  in  the  House  during  the 
first  half  of  my  speech.  I  regretted  it ;  but  there  was  no  help 
for  it.  I  determined  from  the  first  to  treat  his  theoiy  with 
great  contempt,  preserving  all  due  respect  to  himself.  He 
showed  a  good  deal  of  spiteful  ill  nature  in  a  subsequent  speech. 
I  drew  up  a  copy  of  my  speech,  which  was  printed  by  Gales 
and  Seaton.  Mr.  McDuffie's  was  in  the  hands  of  Duff  Greene. 
On  inquiring  of  the  latter  the  cause  of  the  long  delay  in  the 
appearance  of  the  speech,  he  informed  me  that  Mr.  McDuffie 
found  it  hard  to  please  himself;  that,  after  setting  it  up,  he  had 
to  take  it  down,  and  make  an  entire  new  copy.  After  this,  I 
thought  it  proper  to  keep  mine  back  till  his  had  appeared.  His 
speech,  as  printed,  is  much  less  personal  to  myself  than  as  it  was 
delivered.  I  received  a  good  many  compliments  on  this  speech. 
Mr.  McDuffie  had  always  maintained,  that,  whilst  his  theory  was 
much  abused  in  the  general,  no  one  had  undertaken  to  show  the 
fallacy  of  his  position.  This  was  what  I  endeavored  to  do ; 
with  what  success,  it  was  for  others  to  judge.  A  very  elaborate 
review  of  it  was  published  in  the  ( National  Intelligencer,'  alto 
gether  favorable.  I  never  knew  the  writer.  Since  Mr.  Web 
ster's  death,  I  have  found  amongst  my  papers  the  following  very 
flattering  note  from  him  after  reading  this  speech  :  — 

Mr.  Webster  to  N.  Appleton,  after  reading  his  Speech,  June,  1832. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  It  appears  to  me  you  have  completely  refuted  each 
and  every  of  Mr.  McDuffie's  propositions.  I  see  no  vestige  left  of 
one  of  his  arguments.  You  will  see  I  have  made  a  remark  or  two 
on  the  tenth,  the  fourteenth,  and  seventeenth  pages.  The  speech  is 
a  model  of  close  reasoning  on  an  abstruse  subject. 

Yours  truly,  D.  WEBSTER. 

Mr.  APPLETON. 


MEMOIR   OP   HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON.  35 

"  I  have  long  since  been  of  opinion  that  this  South-Caro 
lina  theory  was  only  pretence.  It  was  thought  a  convenient 
cover  to  what  has  continued  their  favorite  idea,  —  the  separation 
of  the  Slave  States  from  the  rest  of  the  Union. 

"The  renewal  of  the  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  was  one  of  the  exciting  topics  of  this  session  of  Congress. 
The  first  question  was  on  the  reference  of  the  subject,  as  men 
tioned  in  the  President's  Message.  The  friends  of  the  bank 
proposed  referring  it  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means ; 
those  opposed  to  it,  to  a  Special  Committee.  I  was  desirous  to 
introduce  several  amendments,  and  was  in  favor  of  the  Special 
Committee ;  but  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  whole  strug 
gle  was,  bank  or  no  bank.  No  one  seemed  to  trouble  himself 
much  about  its  character.  Its  friends  took  every  thing  from  Mr. 
Biddle.  His  ipse  dixit  was  law  and  gospel  with  them.  My 
faith  in  Mr.  Biddle  had  at  that  time  been  materially  shaken ;  and 
I  accordingly  laid  on  the  table,  and  had  printed,  some  amend 
ments,  which  I  intended  at  the  proper  time  to  offer  to  the  bill. 
But  the  bill  which  had  passed  the  Senate  was  delayed  to  the 
latest  moment  of  the  session,  in  consequence  of  a  Committee  of 
Examination  having  been  sent  to  Philadelphia.  The  cholera 
had  broken  out  in  New  York.  It  was  believed,  that  if  the  bill 
was  referred  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  subjected  to 
amendment,  it  would  be  lost.  It  was  therefore  decided  by  its 
friends  to  avoid  going  into  committee,  but  to  pass  the  bill  exactly 
as  it  came  from  the  Senate.  I  was  therefore  obliged  to  abandon 
my  design,  or  put  myself  in  a  hopeless  opposition  to  all  my 
friends ;  which  I  did  not  choose  to  do.  Mr.  Clay  made  a  forci 
ble  appeal  to  me,  considering  that  the  fate  of  the  Whig  cause  de 
pended  on  passing  the  measure.  He  said,  with  an  oath,  '  Should 
Jackson  veto  it,  I  will  veto  him  ! '  He  was  mistaken  :  Jackson 
did  veto  it,  but  was  not  himself  vetoed.  On  my  return  from 
Congress,  I  found  New  York  a  deserted  city,  on  account  of  the 
cholera.  On  coming  into  Broadway  from  the  Battery,  all  was 
silent  as  death  ;  not  a  person  to  be  seen.  On  reaching  Bunker's 
Hotel,  the  only  person  visible  was  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Connecticut ;  like  myself,  011  his  way  home. 


3(>  MEMOIR  OP  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

"  On  my  return  to  Congress,  at  the  second  session  (December, 
1832),  South  Carolina  was  in  a  state  of  semi-rebellion.  General 
Jackson,  by  his  admirable  proclamation  (written  by  Mr.  Living 
ston),  had  dealt  her  a  sort  of  death-blow. 

"At  the  same  time,  in  his  message  and  in  the  report  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  ground  was  taken,  that  the  tariff 
must  be  reduced.  The  reason  assigned  was,  that  it  would  pro 
duce  too  much  revenue ;  the  ground  assumed  being,  that,  at  the 
former  session,  Congress  had  not  carried  out  the  recommenda 
tion  of  the  Executive  in  this  particular.  It  is  true,  the  House 
had  called  on  Mr.  McLane,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  for 
his  project  of  a  bill ;  which  he  furnished,  and  which  was  adopted 
with  certain  modifications  and  alterations.  I  was  under  the  im 
pression,  that  the  reductions  which  we  had  made  in  his  bill  were 
as  great,  or  greater  than  our  additions.  I  was  therefore  much 
gratified,  in  making  an  examination  into  this  matter,  to  find,  that, 
so  far  from  the  statement  of  the  Executive  being  true,  WTC  had 
actually  made  reductions  in  the  duties,  on  the  basis  assumed  (the 
import  of  1831),  of  a  million  of  dollars  beyond  those  presented 
in  the  bill  of  Mr.  McLane,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  reported  a  bill  to  reduce  the 
duties,  in  conformity  with  the  Presidential  recommendation 
(called  Verplanck's  Bill).  On  this  bill  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  make 
a  speech  ;  which  I  accordingly  did  on  the  23d  of  January,  1833, 
in  which  I  dwelt  pretty  decidedly  on  the  fact,  that  the  assertion 
of  the  President,  that  we  had  not  carried  out  the  views  of  the 
Secretary  in  respect  to  the  reduction  of  the  revenue,  was  not 
correct,  with  the  proof  of  it  exhibited  in  figures.  I  afterward 
introduced  a  resolution,  calling  on  the  Secretary  to  show  how 
he  came  to  the  result  which  he  had  stated.  His  answer  did  not 
come  in  till  near  the  close  of  the  session,  and  was  not  printed 
until  all  the  measures  were  completed.  He  was,  however,  com 
pelled  to  admit,  that  our  bill  reduced  the  duties  more  than  the 
one  he  sent  us.  All  this  was  accompanied  with  a  very  wry  face, 
and  the  attempt  to  bring  in  new  elements  of  calculation. 

"  In  the  course  of  my  speech,  I  took  the  bold  measure  of  in 
troducing  an  exhibition  of  the  cotton  manufacture,  which  I  had 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  37 

reason  to  believe  had  a  very  good  effect.  In  the  mean  time,  Mr. 
Clay  had  brought  forward  his  Compromise  Bill ;  reducing  the 
duties  gradually  until  1842.  On  his  arrival  at  Washington,  he 
had  consulted  Governor  Davis  and  myself,  urging  our  co-opera 
tion  in  the  measure  ;  but,  as  we  viewed  it  an  abandonment  of  the 
principle  of  protection,  we  refused  to  do  so.  He  brought  it  for 
ward,  nevertheless.  Verplank's  Bill  labored  very  hard  :  and 
the  administration,  at  length  despairing  of  carrying  it,  decided 
in  caucus  to  adopt  Mr.  Clay's  Compromise  Bill ;  which  was  ac 
cordingly  introduced,  and  carried  through  both  Houses,  almost 
without  debate. 

"  My  wife  was  suffering  from  a  complaint  of  the  lungs.  Dr. 
Warren  was  of  opinion  that  she  would  doubtless  hold  out  during 
the  winter,  and  promised  to  advise  me  in  time  of  any  alarming 
change.  Early  in  February,  I  received  such  a  letter,  and  re 
turned  to  Boston  in  great  haste,  but,  alas  !  too  late.  She  died  on 
the  10th,  —  the  day  before  my  arrival.  I  returned  to  Washing 
ton,  at  the  urgent  request  of  some  of  my  friends,  a  short  time 
before  the  close  of  the  session. 

"  In  1842,  Robert  C.  Winthrop  was  the  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  from  the  District  of  Suffolk.  In  May,  he 
resigned  his  seat  in  consequence  of  the  illness  and  impending 
death  of  his  wife.  A  successor  must  be  appointed  on  the  in 
stant.  The  public  looked  to  cither  Abbott  Lawrence  or  myself 
to  fill  the  vacancy.  Mr.  Lawrence  was  appointed  commissioner, 
on  the  part  of  Massachusetts,  to  settle  the  Maine  boundary  ques 
tion  with  Lord  Ashburton  :  so  that  I  found  myself  under  an 
almost  unavoidable  necessity  of  consenting  to  take  the  place  ; 
which.  I  did  very  reluctantly,  and  took  my  seat  in  the  Twenty- 
seventh  Congress  on  the  9th  of  June.  The  tariff  was  again  the 
chief  subject  of  interest.  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  had  run  out 
on  the  1st  of  July;  and  it  was  a  question,  whether  any  duties 
whatever  could  be  legally  collected.  Matters  were  in  a  very 
complicated  state,  in  consequence  of  the  quarrel  between  Presi 
dent  Tyler  and  his  own  party,  the  Whigs.  Again  I  felt  bound 
to  make  a  speech  on  the  tariff;  so  that,  in  the  three  sessions  in 
which  I  was  a  member  of  Congress,  I  was  called  on  to  make 


38  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

three  speeches  on  the  tariff,  on  three  different  bills.  Finally, 
with  extreme  difficulty,  the  tariff  of  1842  was  carried.  After 
the  close  of  the  session,  I  resigned  my  seat  in.  Congress,  in  con 
formity  with  my  own  wishes,  and  also  to  make  room  for  the 
return  of  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  death  of  whose  wife  had  taken 
place  in  the  mean  time.  During  my  residence  at  Washington,  I 
took  the  place  of  Mr.  Winthrop  at  Mr.  Birth's,  with  Messrs. 
Granger,  Kennedy,  and  Saltonstall,  —  a  most  agreeable  party. 
Mr.  Fillmore  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means ;  and,  as  I  was  invited  to  be  present  at  several  of  their 
meetings,  I  became  quite  intimate  with  him.  The  manner  in 
which  he  discharged  the  office  of  chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means  showed  great  resources  and  much  tact.  He 
won  my  entire  esteem  and  respect." 

But  the  subject  of  the  tariff  is  by  no  means  the  only 
one  on  which  Mr.  Appleton  lias  written  and  spoken  with 
unsurpassed  ability.  His  attention  was  early  called  to 
the  banking  system  of  Massachusetts,  and  to  the  cur 
rency  of  the  United  States ;  and  he  kept  an  intelligent 
and  vigilant  eye  upon  them  both  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
He  was  ever  ready  with  suggestions,  as  prudent  as  they 
were  prompt,  for  remedying  the  embarrassments  or 
averting  the  disasters  to  which  a  paper  circulation  is  so 
peculiarly  liable  ;  and  few  men  have  done  more  than  he 
has  done  towards  sustaining  public  credit,  and  reviving 
public  confidence,  in  those  seasons  of  pressure  and 
panic  by  which  the  speculating  spirit  of  our  country 
has  been  so  often  overtaken.  Rarely,  indeed,  has  such 
a  season  occurred,  without  calling  forth  from  him  a  let 
ter,  a  newspaper  article  or  series  of  articles,  a  speech 
or  an  essay,  which  has  given  the  lead  and  direction  to 
public  sentiment,  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  commu- 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON.  39 

nity  to  which  it  was  immediately  addressed.  He  had 
a  peculiar  faculty  of  disentangling  the  intricacies  of  a 
financial  or  commercial  question,  and  of  presenting  it  in 
a  form  intelligible  to  the  common  mind.  In  this  respect, 
among  the  men  of  the  last  half-century,  he  was  only 
second,  if  second  at  all,  to  the  late  Mr.  Albert  Gallatin, 
with  many  of  whose  views  he  sympathized,  and  with 
whom  he  shared  the  enviable  distinction  of  having  re 
called  the  commercial  and  banking  community  to  a 
sense  of  what  was  just  and  honest,  in  many  an  hour 
when  they  were  tempted  to  seek  relief  from  embarrass 
ment  by  the  postponement  of  acknowledged  obligations. 
The  key  to  his  whole  policy,  on  questions  of  finance  and 
currency,  was  the  stern  integrity  of  his  own  character ; 
and  he  demanded,  of  those  who  managed  the  banking 
institutions  of  the  land,  only  the  same  strictness  in  the 
fulfilment  of  engagements  which  he  ever  exhibited  in  his 
own  individual  transactions.  His  principal  essay  on  the 
currency,  as  published  in  1841,  and  republishecl  with 
additions  in  1857,  is  almost  worthy  of  being  studied  in 
the  schools,  as  an  elementary  manual  on  this  seemingly 
difficult  subject,  which  it  simplifies  to  the  level  of  the 
most  ordinary  comprehension.  There  are  those  among 
us  who  well  remember  the  attention  it  excited  at  Wash 
ington,  among  public  men  from  the  South  as  well  as  the 
Xorth,  when  it  was  first  received  there,  at  a  moment  of 
great  financial  perplexity ;  and  the  astonishment  which 
was  expressed,  that  a  little  plain,  practical,  unpretend 
ing  common  sense  and  common  honesty  had  dispelled 
so  many  of  the  seeming  mysteries  of  currency  and  ex 
change. 


40  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

We  have  seen,  in  our  last  citation,  that  Mr.  Appleton 
early  distrusted  the  policy  and  principles  of  the  late 
Mr.  Biddle,  and  had  some  pretty  independent  views  in 
regard  to  Mr.  Biddle's  Bank.  We  shall  see  more  of 
this  in  the  account  of  his  relations  to  this  question 
of  banks  and  currency,  as  given  in  the  extracts  from  his 
Autobiography,  with  which  we  now  proceed  :  — 

"  The  establishment  of  country  banks  in  Massachusetts  com 
menced  about  the  year  1800.  As  their  bills  found  a  general 
circulation,  the  business  was  profitable,  and  the  increase  of 
country  banks  was  rapid.  As  the  bills  accumulated  in  Boston, 
something  must  be  done  with  them.  At  one  time,  the  Boston 
banks  received  them ;  but  the  sending  them  home  for  payment 
was  very  unpopular.  A  nondescript  association,  called  the 
Boston  Exchange  Office,  was  chartered,  with  a  capital  consisting 
of  (  current  bank-bills,'  and  authorized  to  receive  deposits  and 
make  discounts  in  that  currency  :  but  the  brokers  would  send 
home  the  bills  of  the  most  accessible  banks,  and  the  discount  on 
country -bank  notes ;  or,  in  the  language  of  the  day,  the  premium 
on  Boston  money  continued  to  increase.  A  lawyer  of  Boston, 
named  Andrew  Dexter,  undertook  a  tremendous  speculation,  — 
110  less  than  the  control  of  the  circulating  medium  of  New  Eng 
land,  fie  obtained  the  control  of  the  Boston  Exchange  Office ; 
of  a  number  of  distant  country  banks  ;  of  the  Berkshire,  at 
Pittsfield ;  the  Bangor,  at  Bangor ;  and  especially  the  Farmers' 
Exchange,  in  Rhode  Island.  But,  by  an  act  of  consummate 
folly,  he  invested  the  funds  they  placed  within  his  control  in  an 
enormous  building,  known  by  the  name  of  the  Boston  Exchange. 
He  and  all  the  country  banks  became  pressed  for  means.  The 
banks  threw  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  payment  of  their  bills, 
giving  drafts  on  their  agents  at  longer  and  longer  time,  until  it 
reached  three  months,  and  the  discount  increased  until  it  reached 
five  per  cent.  At  the  same  time,  these  bills  continued  to  be 
received  in  payment  in  the  country  trade  at  par.  Under  these 
circumstances,  there  was  a  general  disposition  to  resist  so  great 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  41 

an  abuse.  I  undertook  to  form  a  plan  for  putting  an  end  to  it. 
At  this  time  (1808),  there  was  no  penalty  on  the  banks  of  Mas 
sachusetts  for  delay  of  payment,  except  simple  interest  and  the 
costs  of  suit.  The  only  power  of  coercion  consisted  in  multi 
plying  suits,  I  obtained  a  subscription  of  a  hundred  dollars 
each,  from  one  hundred  individuals  and  firms ;  which  fund  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  William  Cochran,  a  broker,  for  manage 
ment.  We  addressed  a  circular,  which  I  drew  up,  addressed  to 
all  the  country  banks,  informing  them  of  our  determination  to  put 
an  end  to  the  system  of  evasion  and  delay  by  legal  means.  The 
first  call  was  on  the  Northampton  Bank,  which  had  lately  gone 
into  new  hands ;  who  were  putting  out  their  bills  freely,  with  a 
view  of  playing  the  non-payment  game.  They  began  paying  in 
fourpence-halfpennies.  The  agent  employed,  Lewis  Tappan, 
was  instructed  to  go  on  counting  the  money  tendered  him,  but 
to  inform  the  cashier,  that,  if  they  turned  him  out  of  the  bank 
till  he  was  ready  to  go,  he  should  bring  separate  suits  in  behalf 
of  all  the  parties  interested  in  the  several  demands  which  he 
made ;  and  so  on,  from  day  to  day.  After  holding  out  until  a 
late  hour,  the  bank  finally  gave  in,  and  gave  a  draft  at  a  few 
days'  sight  on  the  agent  in  Boston.  No  other  bank  thought 
proper  to  attempt  resistance.  Dexter's  banks  all  fell  into  dis 
credit,  and  ceased  to  have  any  currency. 

"  A  system  of  most  barefaced  fraud  was  discovered  in  con 
nection  with  the  Farmers'  Exchange  Bank,  which  compelled 
Mr.  Dexter  to  leave  the  State.  A  most  violent  paralysis  and 
crisis  followed  in  reference  to  the  circulation  of  country-bank 
notes.  Nearly  all  the  country  banks,  having  considerable 
circulation,  stopped  payment  ;  but  those  which  were  really 
solvent  soon  acquired  the  means  of  resumption.  Some  finally 
liquidated  in  full ;  but  a  great  number  never  paid  any  thing. 
The  result  of  this  lesson  Avas  a  correction  of  public  opinion  in 
relation  to  bank  circulation.  The  general  sympathy  for  country 
banks  ceased :  they  were  left  to  stand  on  their  own  merits. 
During  this  period,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  discussion  in  the 
newspapers,  in  which  I  took  a  part. 

"In  the  course  of  the  war  with  England  in  1814,  the  banks 

G 


42  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

of  New  York  stopped  payment,  or,  in  the  language  of  the  day, 
suspended  payment  in  specie ;  and  all  the  South  and  West  fol 
lowed  suit.  At  this  time,  the  banks  in  Boston  were  very  rich 
in  specie.  Neither  the  banks  nor  the  citizens  had  gone  into  the 
war  loans,  as  both  had  done  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  ; 
nor  had  her  merchants  taken  much  part  in  the  wild  speculations 
in  merchandise  which  prevailed  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 
The  question  arose,  whether  the  Boston  banks  should  or  could 
continue  to  pay  specie  whilst  all  the  rest  of  the  country  had 
suspended.  Public  opinion  was  a  good  deal  divided. 

"  Some  very  intelligent  men  took  the  ground,  that  it  was 
absurd  for  Boston  to  think  of  paying  specie  whilst  the  banks  of 
all  the  rest  of  the  country  had  suspended.  I  was  a  director 
of  the  Boston  Bank,  and  took  ground  with  those  who  held  that 
it  was  a  mistake  and  a  disgrace  to  suspend,  except  under  a  dire 
necessity ;  that  not  only  did  no  such  necessity  exist,  but  the  fact 
that  all  the  other  banks  of  the  country  were  in  a  state  of  sus 
pense  made  it  easier  for  those  of  Boston  to  continue  to  pay 
specie;  inasmuch  as  specie,  like  every  thing  else,  was  sure  to  flow 
where  it  was  in  use,  or  wanted,  rather  than  to  places  where  it 
had  ceased  to  have  any  occupation.  The  event  justified  these 
views.  Boston  maintained  her  integrity  in  her  currency,  not 
only  during  the  war,  but  during  the  long  period  of  Southern 
suspension  after  the  peace.  The  discount  on  the  currency  of 
Philadelphia  reached  twenty  per  cent.  Boston  felt  no  pressure 
on  her  money-market  until  the  preparations  for  resumption  after 
the  establishment  of  the  United-States  Bank.  She  escaped,  in 
a  great  measure,  the  terrible  revulsion  ever  resulting  from  the 
restoration  of  a  sound  currency,  after  the  existence,  for  a  long 
period,  of  a  depreciated  one.  This  was  fully  developed  in  1819. 
Boston  suffered  from  her  connection  with  New  York  and  the 
South,  but  scarcely  at  all  from  her  operations  at  home.  During 
this  period  of  suspension,  I  wrote  frequently  in  the  newspapers, 
especially  a  series  of  three  or  four  numbers  in  the  daily  '  Adver 
tiser,'  under  the  head,  '  Will  the  Southern  Banks  again  pay 
Specie?'  also  a  review  of  the  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  (Mr.  Dallas),  severely  censuring  his  action  after  the 


MEMOIR    OF   HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON.  43 

peace.  I  also  wrote  a  review  of  Mr.  Crawford's  Report  in 
1820,  in  which  he  made  several  mistakes  in  relation  to  the 
currency  of  New  England  during  the  period  of  Southern  sus 
pension. 

"In  1834,  the  country  was  deeply  excited  by  the  warfare 
carried  on  by  General  Jackson  against  the  United-States  Bank. 
At  a  public  meeting  in  Boston,  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
proceed  to  Washington  with  a  memorial  to  Congress  on  the 
subject,  of  which  I  was  appointed  chairman.  Nothing  could 
have  surprised  me  more  than  this  appointment,  as  it  was  well 
known  that  I  was  of  opinion  that  Mr.  Biddle  had  already  car 
ried  the  system  of  contraction  farther  than  was  necessary.  I 
was,  therefore,  disposed  to  decline  the  appointment.  I  learned, 
however,  that  I  had  been  nominated  for  this  office  because  of 
this  opinion ;  and  I  finally  concluded  to  accept  it.  On  arriving 
in  New  York,  I,  with  some  others  of  the  committee,  called  upon 
James  G.  King  and  Mr.  Gallatin,  who  were  members  of  a  New- 
York  Committee.  We  found  the  dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Biddle 
very  ripe,  and  that  they  had  given  him  an  ultimatum,  which  he 
must  accept,  or  be  denounced  at  the  adjourned  public  meeting 
as  unnecessarily  pressing  upon  the  mercantile  community.  Mr. 
Gallatin  read  to  us  a  report  which  he  had  prepared  to  meet  the 
contingency.  The  meeting  was  to  be  held  the  next  day.  In 
the  evening,  who  should  appear  at  Bunker's,  where  the  com 
mittee  stopped,  but  Mr.  Biddle  himself !  In  the  course  of  the 
evening,  Mr.  P.  T.  Jackson,  Mr.  Henry  Lee,  and  myself,  invited 
him  to  a  private  conference,  at  which  we  told  him  some  home 
truths,  —  that  our  community  ought  not  and  would  not  sustain 
him  in  further  pressure,  which  he  very  well  knew  was  not  neces 
sary  for  the  safety  of  the  bank,  and  in  which  his  whole  object 
was  to  coerce  a  charter  through  the  distresses  of  the  mercantile 
community.  He  listened  to  us  ;  but  we  could  get  very  little  from 
him  but  the  merest  commonplace.  Soon  after  our  arrival  at 
Washington,  I  received,  as  I  had  previously  arranged,  a  letter 
from  Mr.  King,  saying  that  Mr.  Biddle  had  yielded  to  the 
requisitions  of  the  New-York  Committee.  Of  course,  the  press 
ure  of  the  money-market  would,  in  a  great  measure,  cease. 


44  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

This  intelligence  was  not  altogether  agreeable  to  all  my  political 
friends,  so  entirely  does  a  political  object  override  all  other  con 
siderations.  The  arrangement  with  the  New- York  banks  was 
only  for  a  month ;  at  the  end  of  which,  Mr.  Biddle  was  reckless 
enough  to  put  an  end  to  it,  and  renew  the  pressure  with  even 
greater  violence  than  before.  But  Congress  adjourned  soon 
after;  when  he  gave  up  the  chase,  changed  his  tune,  and  in 
creased  the  discounts  of  the  bank  some  ten  millions  in  the  course 
of  six  months  :  • — 

1st  September,  1834 $47,059,000 

1st  June,  1835 63,649,000 

"In  1831,  I  published  a  pamphlet,  with  the  title  '  An  Exa 
mination  of  the  Banking  System  of  Massachusetts,  in  Reference 
to  the  Renewal  of  the  Bank  Charters.'  This  was  published 
without  my  name  ;  but,  as  I  freely  avowed  the  authorship,  it  was 
generally  understood.  As  it  objected  to  granting  the  right  of 
circulation  to  banks  with  capitals  of  less  than  five  hundred  thou 
sand  dollars,  it  was  opposed  by  the  country-bank  interest,  and 
called  forth  several  pamphlets  in  answer.  It  took  the  ground, 
that  the  tax  should  apply  wholly  and  only  to  the  right  of  circu 
lation.  '  The  tax  can  only  be  justified  as  the  grant  of  a  privilege 
under  a  right  especially  belonging  to  the  State,  that  of  regulating 
the  currency ; '  not  the  legal  currency  transferred  to  the  United 
States,  but  of  bank-notes,  which  may  be  considered  a  conven 
tional  currency,  depending  wholly  on  the  choice  or  pleasure  of 
the  receiver.  My  object  in  publishing  this  pamphlet  was  to  put 
forward  certain  leading  principles  which  I  deemed  correct,  rather 
than  any  expectation  of  producing  an  actual  change  in  the  legis 
lation  of  Massachusetts  at  that  time. 

"In  1835-6,  a  very  remarkable  state  of  over-trade  existed; 
the  immediate  cause  of  it  being  an  arrangement  by  which  cer 
tain  London  houses  allowed  themselves  to  be  drawn  upon  by 
houses  in  America,  without  funds  in  hand,  but  with  an  under 
standing,  that,  before  the  maturity  of  the  bills  so  drawn,  other 
bills,  by  other  parties,  should  be  substituted  for  those  falling 
due. 


MEMOIR    OF   HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  45 

"  Whilst  these  bills  could  be  discounted  by  the  Bank  of 
England,  all  went  smoothly ;  and  the  system  went  on  until  the 
amount  of  the  accommodation-bills,  drawn  upon  nothing,  became 
excessive.  The  Bank  of  England  became  alarmed  at  the 
amount,  and  refused  to  discount  them. 

"  The  failure  of  several  large  houses  took  place  ;  others 
could  only  be  saved  by  large  remittances  from  America.  This 
demand  produced  a  call  on  the  banks  for  specie;  a  violent 
pressure  upon  the  money-market  took  place ;  a  number  of 
failures  wholly  unprecedented  occurred  in  New  York;  the 
panic  was  tremendous  ;  and  at  length,  after  a  struggle  of  a 
month,  the  banks  of  New  York  yielded  to  the  storm,  and  sus 
pended  specie  payments,  about  the  1st  of  April,  1837.  The 
banks  throughout  the  whole  country  followed  suit  with  great 
joy  and  alacrity.  I  was  in  Europe  at  the  time,  but  returned  in 
September,  1837.  The  banks  of  New  York  had  got  from  the 
Legislature  an  extension  of  this  suspension  for  a  year ;  which 
expired  in  May,  1838.  A  call  was  made  for  a  convention  to 
meet  in  New  York  in  April,  to  consider  the  subject  of  a  general 
resumption.  In  November,  1837,  I  commenced  a  series  of  four 
numbers  in  the  '  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,'  advocating  an  early 
resumption  of  specie  payments,  and  the  sending  delegates  to 
the  proposed  convention  at  New  York.  The  idea  of  resump 
tion  caused  great  alarm,  and  met  with  much  opposition ;  but  it 
was  agreed  to  send  delegates  to  the  convention.  I  was,  how 
ever,  carefully  excluded,  as  too  radical  in  favor  of  resumption. 
Philadelphia,  under  the  influence  of  Mr.  Biddle,  was  utterly 
opposed  to  resumption,  and  persuaded  Boston  to  go  with  her. 
Under  the  influence  of  Mr.  Gallatin  and  Mr.  Ward  (of  Prime, 
Ward,  and  King),  the  Legislature  of  New  York  was  prevented 
granting  a  further  extension ;  and  the  banks  of  New  York 
actually  resumed  about  the  1st  of  May.  To  assist  the  resump 
tion,  at  the  suggestion  of  James  G.  King,  then  in  England,  the 
Bank  of  England  sent  out  by  him  a  million  of  sovereigns,  to  be 
remitted  for  in  bills  of  exchange  then  below  par ;  under  the 
influence  of  which,  both  Boston  and  Philadelphia  resumed  soon 
after. 


4G  MEMOIR   OF   HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

"  I  was  in  Philadelphia  about  this  time,  and  had  a  conversa 
tion  with  Mr.  Bicldle,  in  the  course  of  which  I  was  exceedingly 
disgusted  with  the  views  which  he  expressed.  There  can  be 
but  little  doubt  that  he  contemplated  compelling  the  New-York 
banks  again  to  suspend,  and  was  in  fact  defeated  by  this  timely 
supply  of  gold  from  the  Bank  of  England. 

"  In  1840,  Mr.  Clay  determined  to  bring  forward  his  project 
for  another  Bank  of  the  United  States.  I  published,  with  my 
name,  a  pamphlet  on  '  Currency  and  Banking,'  one  motive  of 
which  was  to  show  the  danger  from  an  institution  of  so  great 
power.  I  had  become  satisfied,  from  my  own  observation,  that 
it  was  a  power  too  great  to  be  intrusted  to  any  one  man. 

"  In  1839  (October),  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  acting 
under  its  Pennsylvania  charter,  again  suspended  payment,  and 
proved  desperately  insolvent ;  carrying  with  it  the  Philadelphia 
banks,  who  foolishly  involved  themselves  in  its  fortunes,  from 
which  they  were  only  relieved  by  a  large  loan  from  Boston  and 
New  York.  In  arranging  this  loan,  I  took  a  leading  and  active 
part.  Philadelphia  did  resume  in  consequence,  011  the  15th  of 
January,  1841  ;  but  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  broke  down 
after  ten  days'  trial.  The  other  banks  of  Philadelphia  again 
followed  suit,  and  did  not  finally  resume  until  . 

"  During  all  this  period,  from  1837,  I  was  frequently  writing 
for  the  newspapers  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  urging  upon 
Philadelphia  and  the  South  to  restore  their  currency." 

The  few  remaining  pages  of  the  "  Sketches  of  Au 
tobiography  "  are  almost  wholly  taken  up  with  the 
account  of  another  and  more  extensive  tour  in  Europe, 
and  with  the  domestic  incidents  by  which  it  was  occa 
sioned  and  attended.  There  is  nothing  of  particular 
interest  or  value  in  it,  except  inasmuch  as  it  is  emi 
nently  characteristic  of  the  writer.  It  gives  facts  and 
names  and  dates,  without  the  slightest  attempt  to 
describe  the  wonders  of  nature  or  of  art  which  came 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON.  47 

within  his  view,  or  to  express  the  emotions  which  they 
were  calculated  to  excite.  It  was  enough,  for  his  own 
satisfaction,  to  say  that  he  saw  such  places  and  persons 
and  things.  He  had  never  studied  the  style  of  a  word- 
painter;  and  the  impressions  which  he  received  were 
probably  rather  practical  than  poetical.  On  his  arrival 
at  Geneva,  he  says  only,  "  From  thence  made  an  excur 
sion  to  Chamoimi,  and  back  to  Geneva :  was  much 
interested  in  this  excursion."  Mont  Blanc  was  certainly 
never  dismissed  with  a  simpler  or  less  rapturous  allu 
sion.  We  have  no  idea  that  the  grandeur  of  the  Alps 
was  lost  upon  him,  or  that  he  failed  to  appreciate  the 
sublimity  of  the  scenes  which  he  had  witnessed ;  but 
we  may  presently  have  reason  for  thinking,  that  the 
peculiar  interest  of  the  excursion  was  derived  from  his 
finding  marks  upon  the  rocks  in  that  region,  which  con 
curred  with  some  observations  previously  made  by  him 
at  home. 

More  gratifying  to  him,  however,  we  doubt  not,  than 
this  view  of  "  the  monarch  of  mountains,"  or  even  than 
the  presentation  to  the  monarch  of  France,  and  the 
ball  at  the  Tuilerics,  which*  he  afterwards  mentions, 
was  the  visit  with  which  he  concludes  the  account, 
as  if  it  were  the  very  climax  of  the  whole  tour,  —  the 
visit  to  the  county  of  Suffolk,  to  the  parishes  of  Great 
and  Little  Waldingfield,  and  to  Holbrooke  Hall,  where 
his  progenitors  had  resided  in  years  long  past.  As  he 
entered  that  old  manor-house,  and  surveyed  the  ances 
tral  seat,  and  then  looked  on  the  "  beautiful  genealogy  " 
which  his  good  friend  Mr.  Almack  had  so  kindly  pre 
pared  for  him,  he  may  well  have  experienced  some 
emotions  of  pride,  that  the  family  tree  had  suffered 


48  MEMOIR   OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

nothing  by  transplantation ;  that  "  leaves  and  stalks, 
vert"  had  proved  to  be  something*  more  than  a  mere 
token  of  heraldry  ;  and  that  the  name  of  Applcton 
was  (to  say  the  least)  as  worthily  distinguished  at  that 
moment,  in  his  own  person  and  in  those  immediately 
connected  with  him,  as  it  had  been  during  any  of  the 
six  or  seven  generations  in  which  it  had  either  worn  a 
title  of  knighthood,  or  been  associated  with  the  gentry 
of  England.  That  old  Suffolk  soil  must  have  contained 
its  full  share  of  English  grit ;  and  the  stock  which  came 
from  it  has,  in  this  instance  certainly,  proved  hardy 
and  rugged  enough  to  repel  all  ideas  of  American  de 
generacy.  But  the  "  Sketches  "  must  once  more  speak 
for  themselves  :  — 

"  I  declined  being  a  candidate  for  re-election  to  the  Twenty- 
third  Congress,  because  political  life  was  not  much  to  my  taste, 
but  particularly  as  inconsistent  to  my  duty  to  my  family  as  it 
was  then  situated.  In  1835  my  son  Charles  made  a  tour  to  the 
South,  on  account  of  his  health  ;  but  returned  in  a  worse  state 
than  he  left,  and,  in  the  course  of  the  summer,,  fell  a  victim  to 
his  disease.  One  of  my  daughters  was  in  delicate  health,  and  I 
was  advised  by  Dr.  Warren  to  take  a  voyage  to  Europe.  Ac 
cordingly,  in  November,  with  my  son  Thomas  and  two  daugh 
ters,  I  embarked  at  New  York  for  Havre,  where  we  arrived 
about  the  middle  of  December,  the  thermometer  about  zero, 
which  continued  till  we  reached  Paris.  I  was  very  happy  to 
meet  at  Havre  my  old  friend  J.  B.  Greene,  whom  I  had  not 
seen  for  many  years,  and  who  gave  us  a  most  cordial  reception. 
After  a  few  weeks  at  Paris,  we  proceeded  to  Italy  by  way  of 
Lyons,  Marseilles,  and  the  Corniche,  or  maritime  Alp  road. 
At  Marseilles  we  passed  two  or  three  days ;  dined  with  the 
brothers  Rabout,  who  lived  with  their  interesting  mother,  whose 
husband  and  their  father  had  fallen  a  sacrifice  to  the  revolution. 
We  also  became  acquainted  with  Mrs.  Fitch,  and  Mr.  OxnarcTs 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON.  49 

interesting  family.  We  spent  a  day  at  Toulon.,  and  at  Genoa 
dined  with  Mr.  Campbell,  the  American  Consul,  who  informed 
me  that  a  gentleman  was  in  the  city  with  a  commission  for  the 
same  office,  but  who,  after  consulting  him,  concluded  to  keep  it 
in  his  pocket.  We  admired  the  old  palaces,  full  of  old  pictures, 
and  the  quaint  old  narrow  streets,  in  which  was  barely  room  for 
a  jackass  with  panniers  to  pass.  By  Carrara  and  Pisa  and  Flo 
rence,  we  went  to  Sienna,  where  we  visited  the  famous  gallery 
of  old  pictures,  and  other  curiosities  of  old  times.  At  Rome  we 
passed  many  weeks  ;  visited  all  the  galleries,  churches,  &c., 
Tivoli  and  Tusculum.  We  remained  through  the  ceremonies 
of  Holy  Week,  which  should  close  with  the  illumination  of  St. 
Peter's  and  the  Girandola  from  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo ;  but, 
owing  to  bad  weather,  these  were  postponed  from  day  to  day 
for  a  week,  when  the  idea  was  abandoned.  We  then  set  out 
for  Naples,  where  we  passed  our  time  most  agreeably,  visiting 
Pompeii,  Vesuvius,  Prcstum,  Baia3,  &c.  The  ruins  of  Pompeii 
and  the  Museum  are  the  most  interesting  objects  to  be  found 
anywhere.  Here  we  met  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sidney  Brooks ;  and 
from  Naples  we  took  steamboat  for  Leghorn,  where  we  spent 
two  or  three  days,  and  enjoyed  some  musical  parties  at  Mr. 
Grant's.  Hence  to  Bologna,  Modena,  Parma,  Mantua,  Verona. 
The  alarming  accounts  of  the  cholera  prevented  our  going  to 
Venice,  to  our  great  regret ;  but  we  proceeded  to  Milan  and 
Como,  where  we  made  an  excursion  up  the  Lake,  then  to  Lake 
Maggiorc  and  the  Simplon  to  Brigg,  and  down  the  Rhone  to 
Geneva.  From  thence  we  made  an  excursion  to  Chamouni,  and 
back  to  Geneva  :  I  was  much  interested  in  this  excursion.  We 
proceeded  down  the  Lake  to  Lausanne  ;  thence  to  Neufchatel, 
Morat,  Berne  by  Thun,  to  Inteiiachen  ;  and  made  an  excursion 
over  the  Col to  the  Faulhorn,  where  we  slept  at  the  tempo 
rary  house,  the  highest  sleeping-place  in  Europe  ;  thence  by 
Bricntz  to  Inteiiachen ;  and  thence  to  Berne,  Lucerne,  and 
Zurich.  One  of  our  party  was  William  Appleton,  son  of  Wil 
liam  Appleton ;  a  sweet  youth,  who,  for  some  time,  had  been 
suffering  from  a  disease  of  the  lungs.  We  reached  Schaffhau- 
sen,  when  he  was  unable  to  proceed  further.  We  were  at  the 

7 


50  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

hotel,  where  lie  had  every  attention.  lie  lingered  on  for  some 
weeks,  when,  after  giving  particular  directions  for  the  disposi 
tion  of  his  collections,  he  peacefully  and  sweetly  closed  his  eyes 
at  the  age  of  twenty. 

"  It  so  happened  that  the  Rev.  J.  M.  (afterward  Bishop) 
Wainwright  arrived  at  the  hotel  the  day  after  his  death,  and 
consented  to  stay,  and  perform  the  funeral  service.  The  keeper 
of  the  hotel  informed  me,  that  several  gentlemen  of  the  place 
were  desirous  of  attending  the  funeral ;  to  which,  of  course,  I 
assented.  There  was  quite  a  procession  to  the  burying-ground, 
where  I  obtained  a  lot  in  perpetuity,  and  afterward  sent  a 
monumental  stone  from  Paris. 

"  We  afterward  proceeded  to  Friburg,  Strasburg,  Baden- 
Baden,  Heidelburg,  Darmstadt,  Frankfort,  to  Mayence.  Here 
both  my  daughters  were  attacked  with  what  the  physician  called 
a  '  gastric  fever,'  by  which  we  were  detained  six  weeks.  During 
this  period,  Thomas  and  myself  made  excursions  to  the  chateau 
of  Prince  Metternich,  at  Johannisburg,  and  to  Wisbaden.  On 
the  2d  November,  with  snow  on  the  ground,  we  left  Mayence 
for  Paris,  vid  Metz,  Chalons,  Rheims,  Meaux,  where  we  found 
apartments  engaged  for  us  at  Meurice's.  We  left  them,  how 
ever,  for  very  handsome  apartments,  Rue  de  Rivoli  10  bis,  which 
I  took  for  the  winter.  They  were  the  property  of  a  French 
officer,  who  married  the  widow  of  a  rich  Marseilles  merchant; 
but  who,  belonging  to  the  other  party,  was  out  of  place  under 
Louis  Philippe. 

"  During  the  winter,  we  attended  the  various  public  amuse 
ments  of  Paris,  saw  all  the  sights,  attended  the  weekly  soirdes 
of  General  Cass,  were  presented  at  court,  and  accepted  invita 
tions  to  the  grand  ball  at  the  Tuileries,  —  a  very  splendid  affair. 
We  frequently  attended  Mr.  Walsh's  soirees,  where  were  col 
lected  many  of  the  savans. 

"  About  April  20,  we  left  Paris  for  Brussels.  There  had  been 
a  heavy  snow-storm,  and  we  met  with  many  drifts  on  the  sides 
of  the  road.  We  passed  two  or  three  days  at  Brussels,  visited 
Waterloo,  but  were  prevented  reaching  Hougomont  by  the  road 
being  blocked  up  with  snow.  Proceeding  to  Rotterdam,  Am- 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETOX.  51 

stcrdam,  and  the  Hague,  we  took  the  steamer  at  Rotterdam  for 
London,  where  we  arrived  on  the  £d  May  :  the  passage  up  the 
Thames  was  very  interesting.  We  took  rooms  at  the  Bruns 
wick  Hotel,  Jermyn  Street ;  attended  Epsom  races,  the  Opera, 
&c. ;  made  an  excursion  to  Waldingfield ;  called  on  the  rector 
of  Great  Waldingfield,  who  handed  me  the  beautiful  genealogy  of 
the  Appletons,  drawn  by  Mr.  Almack,  now  in  my  possession ; 
visited  both  churches  and  Holbrooke  Hall  with  much  interest." 

We  come,  at  last,  to  the  passage  which  forms  the 
abrupt  conclusion  of  these  fragmentary  sketches,  and 
which  at  once  betrays  the  source  of  that  peculiar  grati 
fication  which  Mr.  Appleton  derived  from  his  Alpine 
tour,  and  exhibits  him  in  connection  with  subjects  of 
investigation  quite  apart  from  those  in  which  we  have 
hitherto  found  him  engaged :  — 

"  My  attention  was  early  called  to  the  subject  of  geology,  to 
which  I  was  attracted  by  the  articles  in  the  different  reviews. 
I  had  been  accidentally  led  to  notice  the  striated  surface  of 
rocks,  where  they  had  not  been  acted  upon  by  the  atmosphere. 
For  several  years,  I  carried  with  me,  in  travelling,  a  pocket 
compass,  and  made  my  observations  wherever  I  had  opportunity. 
I  ascertained  that  the  same  state  of  the  rock  surfaces  existed 
from  Canada  to  the  District  of  Columbia,  with  grooves  all 
running  in  the  same  direction.  I  was  greatly  surprised  that 
this  fact  had  never  been  noticed  by  geologists,  which  induced 
me  to  write  aii  article  to  call  their  attention  to  it.  I  offered  it 
to  a  work  then  published  at  Cambridge,  edited  by  Dr.  Webster 
and  Mr.  Tread  well :  they  objected  to  publish  it,  as  indulging 
too  much  in  theory,  unless  I  would  affix  my  name  to  it,  to  which 
they  urged  me.  To  this  1  would  not  consent,  and  sent  it  to 
Mr.  Silliman,  who  published  it  in  his  journal  of  October,  1826. 
I  only  considered  it  important  for  its  facts,  which  have  since 
been  the  subject  of  great  interest,  and  given  rise  to  much  dis 
cussion. 


52  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

"It  so  happened,  that  in  driving  one  day  with  Captain  Basil 
Hall,  and  stopping  to  examine  a  geological  formation,  in  the 
course  of  conversation,  he  asked  me  if  I  was  the  author  of  an 
article  in  Silliman's  Journal  on  this  subject.  On  my  answering 
that  I  was,  he  stated  to  me,  that  his  attention  to  it  had  been 
called  by  his  father,  Sir  James  Hall,  Avho  had  published  an 
article  in  the  Edinburgh  Philosophical  Transactions,  describing 
very  nearly  the  same  state  of  things,  on  one  of  the  mountains  of 
Scotland.  This  was  the  first  intimation  which  I  had,  that  these 
important  phenomena  had  been  observed  anywhere  at  that  time. 
The  subject  has  been  since  very  fully  gone  into  by  Dr.  Jackson, 
in  his  Geology  of  Maine  ;  and  Professor  Hitchcock,  in  that  of 
Massachusetts.  The  theories  of  glaciers  and  icebergs  have  been 
introduced  to  account  for  their  striae  with  the  accompanying 
alluvium,  but  with  little  satisfaction  to  a  careful  observer,  as  I 
think. 

"  When  in  Switzerland,  I  noticed  there  some  marks  on  the 
rocks  near  the  tops  of  some  of  the  mountains,  as  011  the  Col  de 
Forclaz,  near  the  glacier  de  Rosenlaui  and  on  the  entrance  into 
Chamouni,  in  situations  directly  the  reverse  of  the  ravines,  into 
which  alone  glaciers  can  act." 

Mr.  Appleton  had  evidently  cultivated  those  habits 
of  close  observation  and  careful  discrimination  which 
belong  to  the  successful  pursuit  of  natural  science ; 
and,  for  one  who  studied  it  only  as  an  amateur,  had 
become  no  mean  proficient  in  geology.  The  superficial 
scratches  which  he  had  observed  on  the  rocks,  and  to 
which  he  had  so  early  called  the  attention  of  others, 
have  given  rise  to  a  theory,  which  has  since  been  much 
contested  among  scientific  men.  But  he  had  decided 
opinions  on  this,  as  he  had  on  almost  all  other  questions 
which  he  undertook  to  examine  at  all;  and  he  had  a 
decided  manner  of  expressing  those  opinions.  lie  did 
not  seek  controversy,  perhaps ;  but  he  rather  relished 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETOX.  53 

it,  and  certainly  never  shrunk  from  it.  Nor  did 
he  ever  fail  to  conduct  it  with  ahility,  good  temper, 
and  unyielding  persistency.  He  seemed  always  ready, 
and  always  able,  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that 
was  in  him,  whether  that  faith  related  to  matters 
commercial  or  political,  to  questions  of  morals  or  of 
science,  to  things  temporal  or  to  things  eternal.  Within 
a  few  years  of  his  death,  a  casual  correspondence  with 
an  Episcopal  clergyman  in  England  led  him  into  an 
elaborate  discussion  of  the  doctrines  of  "  Original  Sin 
and  the  Trinity,"  in  which  he  maintained  the  views 
which  had  been  commended  to  him  from  the  lips  of  the 
eloquent  Charming,  and  his  able  and  devoted  successor, 
in  the  church  of  which  he  himself  was  a  faithful  and 
conscientious  member.  The  correspondence  reached 
through  twelve  long  letters,  six  on' each  side,  —  making 
up  a  pamphlet  of  fifty  pages  ;  and  even  those  who 
may  differ  most  widely  from  his  conclusions  cannot 
fail  to  be  struck  with  the  candor,  the  research,  the 
precision,  and  the  power  which  he  displayed  in  the 
argument. 

And  yet,  while  Mr.  Appleton  has  left  so  many  evi 
dences  of  distinguished  success  in  so  many  varied 
departments  of  discussion  and  controversy,  both  oral 
and  written,  one  might  hesitate  about  calling  him  either 
a  great  writer  or  a  great  debater.  There  are,  at  least, 
two  sorts  of  persons  in  the  world,  —  those  who  can 
not  tell  half  they  know,  and  those  who  can  tell  a  great 
deal  more  than  they  know.  The  latter  sort  are  gene 
rally  classed  among  great  debaters  and  great  writers. 
Mr.  Appleton  was  eminently  one  of  the  former  class. 


5-i  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    AITLETON. 

lie  had  not  the  gift  of  fluent  speech.  Pie  did  not  con 
verse  easily.  He  did  not  communicate  with,  facility 
or  with  fulness.  li  His  tongue "  (to  use  the  familiar 
phrase  of  the  Psalmist)  was  not  "  the  pen  of  a  ready 
writer."  Nor  was  his  pen  (if  we  may  reverse  that 
phrase)  the  tongue  of  a  ready  speaker.  He  made  a 
few  invaluable  speeches  in  Congress ;  but  they  were 
laboriously  prepared,  and  gained  nothing  by  the  de 
livery.  He  wrote  (as  we  have  seen)  many  powerful 
essays,  and  a  vast  number  of  excellent  articles  in  the 
public  journals  :  but  a  dry,  terse,  unimaginative  style 
characterized  them  all,  without  illustration  or  ampli 
fication  ;  and  we  are  continually  led  to  say,  as  we  read 
them,  "  What  a  reserve  of  information  and  argument 
he  had !  —  how  much  more  he  knew  and  felt  than  he 
was  able  to  express  !  "  Even  his  style,  however,  as  far 
as  it  went,  was  a  remarkable  one,  —  clear,  concise, 
sententious,  pungent,  conveying  his  meaning  with  mar 
vellous  exactness,  and  singularly  adapted  to  the  topics 
which  he  treated.  Few  college-bred  men  have  written 
purer  English.  But  it  was  the  style  of  an  acute,  inde 
pendent,  and  often  profound  thinker,  rather  than  of  an 
attractive  writer  or  an  impressive  speaker.  His  pro 
ductions  seem  often,  indeed,  more  like  the  notes  of  a 
speech  or  the  heads  of  an  argument  than  like  the 
argument  or  the  speech  itself.  And  so  they  often  were 
to  others,  if  not  to  himself.  If  those  who  served  in 
Congress,  either  with  him  or  during  his  time,  from  the 
greatest  to  the  least,  could  tell  from  what  magazines  or 
reservoirs  of  fact,  experience,  and  practical  knowledge, 
they  derived  many  of  their  best  and  most  effective 


MEMOIR    OF    TION.    NATTIAN    APPLETOX.  55 

materials  for  the  efforts  which  won  the  admiration  of 
their  constituents  and  the  country,  they  would  say  that 
it  was  from  the  private  correspondence,  the  personal 
communication,  or  the  published  essays  of  Mr.  Nathan 
Appleton.  Nor  can  we  fail  to  reflect,  now  that  he  is  no 
more,  what  a  resource  to  the  National  Administration 
his  experience,  sagacity,  and  practical  wisdom  would 
have  been  at  this  moment,  in  aiding  it  to  provide  for 
the  financial  exigencies  which  have  resulted  from  the 
deplorable  conflict  into  which  it  has  been  precipitated 
by  the  madness  of  the  Southern  States. 

lie  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  commencement  of 
this  conflict,  and  to  realize  the  difficulties,  dangers,  and 
momentous  issues,  which  it  involved.  Conservative  and 
national  in  all  his  views,  he  had  always  deprecated  sec 
tional  agitations  and  contentions,  and  had  combated 
the  course  of  the  Free-soil  and  Antislavery  parties  of 
the  North,  both  by  his  vote  and  by  his  pen;  but  he 
had  no  sympathy  with  secessionists  or  disunionists 
anywhere.  His  last  pamphlet,  published  as  lately  as 
March,  1860,  was  a  letter  to  his  friend  Mr.  Rives,  of 
Virginia,  protesting  against  the  extreme  views  of  the 
South  as  well  as  of  the  North.  And,  after  the  first 
blow  had  been  struck  by  Carolina,  he  knew  nothing 
but  his  country's  cause  ;  and  cordially  concurred  with 
his  political  friends  in  the  doctrine,  that  the  Govern 
ment  must  be  supported,  the  flag  defended,  and  the 
authority  of  the  Constitution  re-asserted,  if  possible, 
over  the  whole  Union.  Within  a  week  before  his 
death,  he  gave  his  name  and  a  handsome  contribution 
to  the  reception  of  a  regiment  from  his  native  State  of 


f)(j  MEMOIR    OF    ITON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

New  Hampshire,  and  regretted  that  he  could  not  be 
present  to  welcome  them  personally,  as  they  marched 
throug]^  Boston  on  their  way  to  the  defence  of  the 
Capital.  Yet  he  regarded  the  insurrection  of  the  South 
ern  States  more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger,  and  would  have 
heen  one  of  the  last  to  countenance  or  to  encourage  the 
idea  of  prosecuting  the  war  in  any  spirit  of  hatred  or 
revenge,  or  with  any  view  either  of  emancipating  the 
slave  or  subjugating  his  master. 

But  the  clouds  which  had  gathered  so  thickly  over 
the  country  were  not  the  only  ones  which  darkened  the 
closing  scenes  of  the  career  which  has  thus  heen 
sketched.  While  the  little  remnant  of  his  life  was  to 
be  counted  by  days,  and  almost  by  hours,  and  while 
he  was  awaiting  his  final  summons  with  calm  resigna 
tion  to  the  Divine  Will,  a  sudden  and  most  distressing 
domestic  calamity  was  announced  to  him,  —  resulting, 
after  a  brief  interval,  in  the  death  of  a  beloved  daugh 
ter,  who,  in  the  pride  of  her  matronly  beauty,  and  in 
the  enjoyment  of  every  advantage  and  distinction  which 
could  render  her  life  dear  to  herself  or  enviable  to 
others,  had  fallen  a  victim  to  an  accident  which  thrilled 
the  heart  of  the  whole  community.  "  She  has  gone 
but  a  little  while  before  me  "  was  his  only  response  to 
these  startling  tidings  ;  and  he  braced  himself  up  anew 
to  endure  whatever  his  heavenly  Father  had  appointed 
for  him.  On  the  day  of  her  funeral  at  Cambridge,  he 
rose,  and  dressed  himself  in  a  full  suit  of  mourning,  and 
sat  in  his  accustomed  arm-chair,  as  if  he  were  present 
(as  he  was  in  spirit)  at  the  sad  ceremonial.  He  listened 
with  composure,  soon  afterwards,  to  a  detailed  recital, 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    A1TLETOX.  57 

at  his  own  particular  request,  of  all  the  circumstances 
connected  with  her  death  and  burial,  and  then  retired  to 
his  bed  for  the  night.  Before  another  sun  had  fully 
risen,  his  spirit  had  returned  to  God  who  gave  it ;  and, 
on  the  third  day  following,  his  remains  were  borne  to 
Mount  Auburn,  and  laid  beside  the  lovely  form  of  his 
lamented  child. 

Mr.  Appleton  has  himself  referred,  in  the  sketches 
which  have  been  given,  to  the  death  of  his  first  wife  in 
1833.  She  had  borne  him  two  sons  and  two  daughters. 
The  second  son  died,  of  consumption,  in  1835.  The 
eldest  daughter,  who  had  married  a  son  of  the  late 
distinguished  English  statesman  and  philosopher,  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  and  who  resides  with  her  husband 
and  children  in  London,  was  unable  to  be  with  him  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  The  second  daughter,  the  wife 
of  our  accomplished  and  admirable  poet,  Longfellow, 
was  sadly  torn  away,  as  we  have  seen,  while  her  father 
was  just  waiting  for  his  own  release.  But  he  had  been 
most  happily  married  again,  in  1839,  to  an  amiable  and 
excellent  person,  by  whom  he  had  three  other  children, 
who,  with  their  mother  and  his  eldest  son,  were  at  hand 
to  watch  over  his  last  hours,  to  sympathize  with  him 
under  the  terrible  blow  which  had  fallen  upon  him  and 
them  alike,  and  to  attend  him  in  those  closing  scenes, 
for  which  none  less  near  and  dear  than  wife  and  chil 
dren  can  ever  be  sufficient. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  Mr.  Applcton's  character  if 
the  impression  were  to  be  left  that  he  sunk  under  the 
blow  which  had  thus  unexpectedly  fallen  upon  him. 
He  had  no  nervous  susceptibilities  which  exposed 

8 


58  MEMOIR    OF   HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 

him  to  be  prematurely  prostrated  even  by  so  sudden  a 
shock.  The  wreaths  of  oak  and  ivy  which  were  laid 
upon  his  coffin  were  just  emblems  of  his  qualities  and 
career.  He  was  eminently  a  man  of  courage  and  con 
stancy,  and  had  strength  of  will,  and  firmness  of  soul, 
for  whatever  event  might  betide  him.  But  his  own 
days  had  long  been  numbered,  and  the  vital  flame  had 
so  flickered  in  the  socket  before  the  blast  of  that  terrible 
bereavement  reached  it,  that  it  was  rather  a  surprise 
that  he  had  lived  so  long,  than  that  he  had  died  at 
last.  "  I  am  not  afraid,"  was  his  reply  to  a  friend 
who  made  some  suggestion  to  him  only  a  day  or  two 
before  this  domestic  calamity  occurred,  —  "  to  tell 
you  the  truth,  I  believe  I  am  not  afraid  of  any  thing." 
One  of  the  mottoes  which  has  sometimes  been  associ 
ated  with  his  family  arms  might  peculiarly  have  been 
selected  as  his  own  motto  ;  and  the  language  in  which 
it  has  come  down  to  us  was  by  no  means  unfamiliar  to 
him,  —  Ne  cede  mails ,  sed  contra  audentior  ito.  If 
the  first  half  of  the  line  had  been  adopted  in  the  spirit 
of  a  pun  upon  the  family  name,  (as  so  many  of  the  old 
mottoes  were,)  nothing  could  have  been  more  applica 
ble  to  himself  personally  than  the  latter  half.  Partly 
as  the  result  of  physical  constitution,  and  partly  as  the 
result  of  the  faith  which  he  had  cherished  and  culti 
vated  through  life,  he  was  of  a  temper  never  to  yield 
to  adversities,  but  to  bear  up  bravely  against  them  to 
the  end.* 


*.  Another  motto  of  the  Appleton  Family  is  Mulls  for  tiler  obsta.     Both  breuthe  the 
same  spirit,  and  both  involve  the  same  play  upon  words. 


MEMOIR    OF   HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  59 

Persistent  courage  and  inflexible  integrity  were,  in 
deed,  the  two  leading  elements  of  Mr.  Appleton's 
character,  and  constituted  the  secrets  of  his  great  suc 
cess.  To  these,  more  than  to  any  thing  else,  he  owed 
both  his  fortune  and  his  fame:  He  displayed  his  bold 
ness  by  embarking  in  untried  enterprises,  by  advocating 
unpopular  doctrines,  by  resisting  popular  prejudices,  by 
confronting  the  most  powerful  and  accomplished  oppo 
nents  in  oral  or  written  argument,  and  by  shrinking 
from  no  controversy  into  which  the  independent  expres 
sion  of  his  opinions  might  lead  him.  His  integrity  was 
manifested,  where  all  the  world  might  read  it,  in  the  daily 
dealings  of  a  long  mercantile  career,  and  in  the  princi 
ples  which  he  inculcated  in  so  many  forms  of  moral, 
commercial,  and  financial  discussion.  There  is  nothing 
in  his  "  Sketches  of  Autobiography  "  more  true  of  him 
self  than  the  following  passage  from  his  memoir  of 
the  late  Abbott  Lawrence,  as  prepared  for  this  Society 
in  1856,  and  published  in  our  Collections  :  — 

"  The  merchant  makes  no  claim  to  benevolence  or  patriotism 
as  his  ruling  motive  in  trade  :  all  he  professes  is  absolute  and 
unclcviating  justice.  The  morals  of  trade  are  of  the  strictest 
and  purest  character.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  opinion,  that 
there  is  a  laxity  in  the  mercantile  code,  which  looks  with  indul 
gence  on  what  are  called  the  tricks  of  trade.  It  is  not  so. 
TVhilst  the  direct  object  of  all  trade  is  gain,  individual  benefit, 
not  the  slightest  prevarication  or  deviation  from  truth  is  allowa 
ble.  There  is  no  class  of  men  with  whom  the  Christian  rule,  of 
doing  to  others  what  we  expect  or  require  in  return,  is  more 
strictly  demanded  than  amongst  merchants.  Mercantile  honor 
is  as  delicate  and  fragile  as  that  of  a  woman.  It  will  not  bear 
the  slightest  stain.  The  man  in  trade,  who  has  been  found  to 


GO  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    ATPLETON. 

equivocate  or  falter  in  his  course,  becomes  a  marked  man.  He 
is  avoided.  It  is  thus  found,  by  experience,  that  integrity  is 
almost  as  uniformly  the  accompaniment  of  success,  as  it  always 
is  of  character." 

It  only  remains  for  me  to  do  an  act  of  justice  to  Mr. 
Appleton's  character,  to  which  he  seemed  to  attach 
particular  importance,  and  which  can  best  be  performed 
by  simply  transcribing  a  memorandum  of  my  own,  made 
at  the  time.  I  had  called  to  bid  him  good-bye  before 
going  to  Europe,  two  or  three  years  ago  ;  and  found  him 
suffering  severely  from  a  racking  cough,  and  hardly 
expecting  to  live  until  my  return.  After  conversing  for 
a  few  minutes  on  several  topics,  in  presence  of  his  fa 
mily,  he  asked  me  to  go  with  him  into  his  little  private 
library,  where  he  said  substantially  as  follows  :  — 

"  You  know  I  have  always  told  you,  that  I  relied  on  you  to 
look  after  my  memory  after  I  am  gone,  and  to  prepare  some 
little  biography  or  memoir  of  me,  according  to  the  custom  of 
our  Historical  Society.  I  have  arranged  abundant  materials, 
which  you  shall  have  at  the  right  time.  But  there  is  one  point 
of  my  character  that  I  do  not  think  the  world  is  in  the  way  of 
understanding.  I  have  accumulated  a  large  fortune,  and  people 
are  liable  to  think  that  I  have  been  peculiarly  devoted  to  money- 
making.  As  I  came  to  Boston  a  poor  boy,  this  would  be  a 
natural  inference.  Yet  nothing  is  more  untrue.  The  truth  is, 
when  I  had  succeeded  in  laying  up  a  moderate  property,  —  say 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  —  I  was  quite  content,  and 
intended  to  retire  altogether  from  business.  It  was  altogether 
accidental  that  I  have  ever  gone  further.  I  have  explained 
something  of  this  in  my  late  pamphlet  on  the  history  of  Lowell 
and  the  Cotton  Manufacture.  It  was  wholly  accident  that  I 
went  into  that  business ;  and  the  truth  is,  that  my  mind  has 
always  been  devoted  to  many  other  things  rather  than  money- 


MEMOIR    OF    ITON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  61 

making.  That  has  never  been  a  passion  with  me,  or  ever  a 
subject  of  much  concern.  Accident,  and  not  effort,  has  made 
me  a  rich  man." 

Mr.  Appleton  need  have  had  no  such  apprehensions 
as  might  seem  to  be  implied  in  these  remarks.  Neither 
the  employment  of  his  time,  his  faculties,  nor  his  for 
tune,  had  been  that  of  a  mere  maker  or  hoarder  or 
lover  of  money  ;  and  no  such  character  could  ever  have 
been  attached  to  him  by  the  community  in  which  he 
lived.  The  very  investment  of  so  large  a  part  of  his 
property  in  domestic  manufactures  had  many  of  the  best 
elements  of  chanty ;  and  the  satisfaction  which  he  de 
rived  from  the  success  by  which  he  was  himself  enriched, 
was  not  a  little  enhanced  by  the  consideration,  that  he 
had  been  the  means  of  affording  employment  to  so  great 
a  number  of  operatives,  of  both  sexes,  who  might  other 
wise  have  failed  to  obtain  work  and  wages.  But  his  mind 
was  one  of  the  last  that  could  have  contented  itself  with 
merely  poring  over  his  own  day-book  and  ledger,  much  as 
he  may  have  prized  the  virtues  of  the  trial-balance.  He 
was  a  person  of  large  reading,  diligent  study,  careful 
reflection,  varied  acquisition;  whose  published  writings 
would  alone  be  sufficient  to  show  how  little  of  his  time 
and  thought  could  have  been  taken  up  with  any  private, 
pecuniary  ends  of  his  own.  Harvard  University  recog 
nized  his  claims  to  the  distinctions  of  literature  by  the 
honorary  degrees  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1844,  and  of 
Doctor  of  Laws  in  1855.  The  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  the  American  Antiquarian  Society, 
and  other  kindred  associations,  enrolled  him  among  their 
domestic  members ;  and  the  Archaeological  Institute  of 


62  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

Suffolk  County,  in  Old  England,  placed  his  name  on  its 
foreign  honorary  list.  He  had,  indeed,  accumulated  a 
great  estate ;  but  it  had  brought  with  it  no  canker  of 
pride  or  avarice.  He  was  a  liberal,  public-spirited 
gentleman,  whose  charity  began  at  home,  but  did  not  end 
there ;  who  made  handsome  provision  for  a  hospitable 
household  and  a  numerous  family,  without  limiting  his 
benevolence  within  the  range  of  domestic  obligations 
or  personal  ties.  He  was  not  ostentatious  of  his  bounty, 
either  in  life  or  death ;  nor  did  he  seek  celebrity  for  his 
name  by  any  single  and  signal  endowment :  but  he 
never  looked  with  indifference  on  the  humane  and 
philanthropic  enterprises  of  the  day,  nor  declined  to 
unite  in  sustaining  those  institutions  of  education  and 
science  which  are  the  glory  of  his  time.  His  sense  of 
justice  and  his  distaste  for  display  prevailed  even  here ; 
and  he  preferred  being  known  as  "  doing  his  share  "  in 
any  public  cause,  to  being  remarked  upon  for  extraor 
dinary  munificence. 

The  deep  interest  which  he  took  in  our  own  Society, 
during  a  membership  of  nearly  thirty  years,  has  been 
manifested  by  his  punctual  attendance  at  our  meetings, 
by  his  frequent  donations  to  our  library,  and  by  more 
than  one  most  timely  and  liberal  contribution  to  our 
treasury.  His  instrumentality  was  highly  effective  in 
our  behalf  as  one  of  the  committee  by  which  our 
present  building  was  secured  to  us ;  and  still  more  as 
one  of  the  executors  of  his  late  excellent  brother  (Mr. 
Samuel  Appleton)  in  the  establishment  of  our  Publish 
ing  Fund,  which  bears  that  brother's  name.  His  own 
name  will  be  cherished  in  our  memories  among  those 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON.  63 

which  have  most  adorned  our  rolls,  and  will  henceforth 
have  a  conspicuous  place  in  that  list  of  illustrious 
Merchants,  whose  enterprise,  integrity,  and  public  spirit 
have  made  up  so  large  a  part  of  the  best  history  of 
Boston. 


Mr.  APPLETON  married,  — 

First,  in  1806,  Maria  Theresa  Gold,  eldest  daughter  of  Thomas 
Gold,  Esq.,  of  Pittsfield,  who  was  born  7th  November,  1786,  and 
died  10th  February,  1833. 

Their  children  were,  — 

1.  Thomas  Gold,  who  was  graduated  at  Harvard  University  in 
1831. 

2.  Mary,  who  married  Robert  James  Mackintosh,  Esq.,  formerly 
Governor-General  of  the  Leeward  Islands,  and  son  of  the  late  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  and  has  issue. 

3.  Charles  Sedgwick,  who  died  25th  October,  1835. 

4.  Fanny  Elizabeth,  who   married  Professor  Henry  Wadsworth 
Longfellow,  and  died  (leaving  issue)    10th  July,  1861. 

Mr.  Appleton  married,  second,  in  1839,  Harriot  Coffin  Sum- 
ner,  daughter  of  Jesse  Stunner*  Esq.,  of  Boston.  Then*  children 
are,  — 

1.  William  Snmner,  who  was  graduated  at  Harvard  University  in 
18GO. 

2.  Harriot. 

3.  Nathan. 


G4  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    APPLETON. 


The  following  list  of  Mr.  APPLETON'S  WHITINGS  is  believed 
to  comprise  all  which  have  been  published  in  pamphlet  form :  — 

An  Examination  of  the  Banking  System  of  Massachusetts,  in  Re 
ference  to  the  Renewal  of  the  Bank  Charters.  1831  ;  pp.  48. 

Remarks  on  Mr.  Bouhlin's  Resolution  of  Inquiry  into  the  Nature 
of  Minimum  Duties.  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  21, 
1832;  pp.  12. 

Speech  in  Reply  to  Mr.  McDuilie,  of  South  Carolina,  on  the 
Tariff.  House  of  Representatives,  May  30,  1832  ;  pp.  2-1. 

Speech  on  the  Bill  to  reduce  and  otherwise  alter  the  Duties  on 
Imports.  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  23,  1833  ;  pp.  31. 

Remarks  on  Currency  and  Banking  ;  having  Reference  to  the 
present  Derangement  of  the  Circulating  Medium  in  the  United 
States.  1841;  pp.  48  (with  Appendix,  73). 

Speech  on  the  Taritf  and  Compromise  Act,  delivered  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  July  5,  1842  ;  pp.  10. 

Labor :  its  Relations  in  Europe  and  the  United  States  compared. 
1844;  pp.  16. 

Correspondence  between  Nathan  Appleton  and  John  G.  Palfrey. 
1846  ;  pp.  20. 

What  is  a  Revenue  Standard  ?  and  a  Review  of  Secretary  Walker's 
Report  on  the  Tariff.  1846  ;  pp.  23. 

Correspondence  between  Nathan  Appleton  and  John  A.  Lowell  in 
Relation  to  the  Early  History  of  the  City  of  Lowell.  1848  ; 
pp.  19. 

Memoir  of  Hon.  Abbott  Lawrence  ;  prepared  for  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society.  1856  ;  pp.  20. 

Remarks  on  Currency  and  Banking.     Third  edition.     1857  ;  pp.  63. 
Introduction  of  Power-loom,  and  Origin  of  Lowell.      1858  ;  pp.  36. 

The  Doctrines  of  Original  Sin  and  the  Trinity  ;  discussed  in  a 
Correspondence  between  a  Clergyman  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  England  and  a  Layman  of  Boston,  U.  S.  1850  ;  pp.  50. 

Letter  to  the  Hon.  William  C.  Rives,  of  Virginia,  on  Slavery  and 
the  Union.  1860  ;  pp.  17. 


A  P  P  E  N  D  I  X. 


MEETING   IN  THE  MERCHANTS'   EXCHANGE. 

A  MEETING  of  the  merchants  of  Boston  was  held  yesterday, 
at  noon,  in  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  for  the  purpose  of  testify 
ing  their  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  late  Hon.  Nathan 
Appleton.  It  was  attended  by  a  large  number  of  prominent 
business-men.  Mr.  J.  "W.  Edmands  called  the  meeting  to  order; 
and,  after  stating  the  object  of  the  meeting,  he  introduced  Mr. 
John  A.  Lowell  as  the  President.  Messrs.  P.  T.  Jackson  and 
Israel  Lombard  were  chosen  Secretaries. 

Mr.  LOWELL  then  made  the  following  remarks  :  — 

I  thank  you  for  this  nomination.  I  might  have  hoped  that  your 
choice  would  have  fallen  upon  some  one  more  used  than  I  to  such  an 
ollice  ;  and  yet  I  should  hardly  have  been  content  that  this  opportu 
nity  should  not  have  been  afforded  me  of  expressing  my  appreciation 
of  the  public  and  private  merits  of  Nathan  Appleton.  No  one, 
perhaps,  now  living,  has  been  for  so  long  a  period  intimately  asso 
ciated  with  him  in  the  pursuits  of  business  ;  certainly  no  one  is 
prepared  to  render  stronger  testimony  to  the  sagacity,  the  public 
spirit,  the  unshaken  firmness,  the  high  tone  of  honor,  that  marked 
every  action  of  his  long  and  useful  career.  His  name  is  too  inti 
mately  connected  with  finance,  with  commerce,  Avith  all  the  great 
industrial  pursuits  of  New  England,  to  need  eulogium  from  any  one  ; 
but  it  is  a  privilege  which  we,  his  fellow-citizens,  would  not  willingly 
forego,  to  bear  our  ready  testimony  to  those  qualities  which  have 
done  more  than  those  of  perhaps  any  other  one  man  to  enhance  the 
estimation  and  promote  the  prosperity,  not  of  this  city  only,  not  of 

o 


G6  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

this  State,  nor  of  New  England,  but  of  the  whole  of  our  common 
country,  North,  East,  West,  ay,  and  South.  The  time  will  come,  I 
am  assured,  when  even  that  now  ungrateful  and  rebellious  laud  will 
enroll  the  name  of  Nathan  Appleton  among  the  benefactors  our  coun 
try  gave  us. 

REMARKS    OF    MR.    J.   T.   STEVENSON. 

May  I  be  permitted,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  offer  a  resolution  for  the 
consideration  of  this  meeting  ? 

This  assembly  of  so  many  of  our  merchants  at  this  unwonted 
hour,  upon  the  announcement  of  the  departure  from  the  scenes  of 
earth  of  a  gentleman,  who,  through  a  long  life,  has  occupied  a  very 
prominent  position  in  our  commercial  community,  bears  ample  testi 
mony  to  the  manner  in  which  his  usefulness  and  virtues  have  been 
appreciated  here. 

Mr.  Nathan  Appleton  was  a  man  fit  for  an  example.  He  was  a 
loyal  and  public-spirited  citizen,  a  steadfast  friend,  a  safe  adviser,  an 
honorable  merchant,  and  a  Christian  gentleman.  He  executed  the 
numerous  trusts  which  his  high  character  in  our  community  enforced 
upon  him,  with  that  scrupulous  faithfulness  which  is  the  brightest 
jewel  in  the  ornament  of  a  merchant  prince.  Notwithstanding  his 
extreme  modesty,  amounting  almost  to  bashfulness,  the  intrinsic 
virtues  of  his  character  put  him  into  the  front  rank  of  the  profession 
which  he  had  chosen  and  which  he  loved.  In  the  conduct  of  affairs 
he  was  very  cautious,  but  truly  courageous. 

He  was  a  very  charitable  man  ;  not  careless  in  his  bestowments  : 
but  rarely  did  any  object  which  he  knew  to  be  a  worthy  one  look  for 
his  aid  in  vain.  I  have  more  than  once  heard  him  speak,  with 
obvious  delight,  of  the  fact,  that  the  ample  fortune  which  his  own 
enterprise  had  laid  the  foundations  for,  and  which  God  had  blessed 
him  with,  was  so  invested  as  to  give  honorable  employment  and 
sufficient  wages  to  large  numbers  of  persons  less  fortunate  in  that 
respect  than  himself. 

He  was  an  accomplished  gentleman.  Endowed  by  nature  with  a 
vigorous  intellect,  he  had  employed  his  leisure  from  the  active  work 
of  business  for  its  cultivation.  He  studied  a  subject  before  he  talked 
about  it.  He  was  a  logical  thinker  and  a  lucid  writer.  The  pro 
ductions  of  his  pen  upon  subjects  affecting  the  commercial  interests 
and  the  political  economy  of  the  country  have  been  of  marked 
value. 


APPENDIX.  G7 

In  liis  old  age,  lie  enjoyed  the  innocent  pleasures  of  life  with  a 
zest  that  might  have  become  a  boy.  The  lengthening  shadows,  as 
his  sun  went  down,  cast  no  obscurity  over  his  mind ;  but  he  noted, 
with  the  eye  of  a  Christian  philosopher,  the  gradual  ebb  of  his  own 
vital  powers.  Knowing,  as  he  did,  that  the  time  that  was  lent  to 
him  must  be  measured  by  only  a  few  days,  he  approached  the  con- 
lines  of  eternity,  though  called  upon  to  bear  a  terrible  domestic 
burden  which  an  inscrutable  Providence  had  just  laid  upon  him, 
with  unfaltering  step.  His  perfect  patience  was  founded  on  a  firm 
faith. 

I  may  be  asked,  "  Had  our  departed  friend  no  faults  ?  "  Of  course 
he  had,  for  he  was  human  ;  and  God  has  not  vouchsafed  to  us  that 
men  should  be  perfect  here  on  earth.  But  assuredly  we  may  permit 
the  cold  hand  of  death  to  draw  an  impenetrable  veil  over  the  frailties 
or  the  foibles  that  made  our  friend  a  man,  while  we  contemplate  the 
virtues  which  have  fitted  him  for  an  angel.  May  he  be  an  angel  to 
us  !  Let  us  imitate  his  example,  and  revere  his  memory  ;  then, 
though  he  be  sleeping  in  the  grave,  he  will  still  be  doing  good  to  those 
who  are  to  follow  him. 

We  have  not  come  here  to  mourn  his  loss.  He  has  enjoyed  a  long 
and  a  prosperous  life.  Twelve  years  more  than  "  threescore  and 
ten "  were  allotted  to  him,  and  a  cheerful  spirit  prevented  old  age 
from  becoming  a  burden  to  him  ;  and  now,  in  a  full  maturity,  a  good 
citizen,  a  kind  friend,  and  an  honorable  merchant,  has  been  gathered 
to  his  fathers.  But  we  have  come,  rather,  to  bear  a  cheerful  testi 
mony  to  his  large  usefulness  and  to  his  many  virtues. 

Permit  me  to  offer  the  resolutions  which  I  will  read :  — 

Resolved,  That  the  merchants  of  Boston  desire  to  give  expression  to  their 
sense  of  the  exalted  worth  of  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,  and  to  testify 
their  respect  for  his  memory. 

Resolved,  That  the  character  of  Mr.  Appleton  presented  an  example 
worthy  of  imitation ;  that  his  vigorous  intellect  was  habitually  devoted  to 
useful  objects  ;  that  his  private  fortune  was  so  used  as  to  he  a  public  bene 
faction  ;  that  his  kind  heart,  his  open  hand,  his  cooi  judgment,  his  unswerv 
ing  integrity,  his  strict  justice,  and  his  pure  morality,  entitled  him  to  our 
affectionate  respect  while  he  lived,  and  will  prompt  us  to  cherish  his  memory 
now  that  he  has  gone. 

Resolved,  That,  without  intending  to  intrude  upon  the  sacred  sorrow  of 
home,  wre  take  this  occasion  to  assure  the  family  of  our  departed  friend  of  our 
sincere  sympathy  with  them  in  their  double  grief. 

Jlesolvcd,  That,  in  token  of  our  respect  for  the  deceased,  we  will  attend  the 
funeral  services  at  the  King's  Chapel  this  afternoon. 


118  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN   APPLETON. 

REMARKS    OF    HON.    EDWARD    EVERETT. 

Mr.  EVERETT  spoke  substantially  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  T  am  rather  out  of  place  in  this  hall ;  but  I  have 
cheerfully  complied  with  the  request  of  your  Committee  in  giving  my 
attendance  here,  to  join  you  in  an  expression  of  respect  for  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Apple-ton.  It  was  my  happiness  to  stand  in  friendly 
relations  to  him  from  my  earliest  entrance  into  public  life,  and  to 
enjoy  at  all  times  his  political  and  personal  confidence.  He  was 
certainly  a  man  of  high  mark ;  and  lie  possessed  those  natural 
endowments,  and  traits  of  character,  which  would  have  led  to  distinc 
tion  in  any  walk  of  life.  His  career  is  too  well  known  to  those  who 
hear  me  to  need  a  minute  rehearsal.  His  original  inclination  seems 
to  have  been  for  a  profession.  Circumstances,  however,  led  him, 
after  preparing  for  a  collegiate  course  at  Dartmouth,  to  engage  in 
business  ;  which  he  pursued,  as  we  all  know,  for  the  rest  of  his  life, 
with  intelligence,  energy,  and  success.^  But  he  retained  to  the  last 
his  literary  tastes,  kept  up  his  knowledge  of  the  Latin  language,  was 
fond  of  reading  and  writing,  and  gave  the  public  many  carefully  pre 
pared  efforts  of  his  pen.  Among  these,  I  may  mention  his  treatise 
on  currency  and  banking,  first  published  in  1841  ;  a  tract  on  the 
relations  of  labor  in  Europe  and  America ;  his  account  of  the  intro 
duction  of  the  power-loom  into  the  United  States,  and  of  the  founda 
tion  of  the  city  of  Lowell ;  and  his  biographical  memoir  of  his  friend 
Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence,  which  was  prepared  at  the  request  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  Mr.  Appleton's  opinions  on  the 
important  questions  of  the  day  were  also  occasionally  published  in 
the  form  of  letters  to  his  friends  ;  and,  a  year  or  two  since,  an  inte 
resting  correspondence  with  an  English  clergyman  on  some  theological 
questions  was  printed  by  him.  All  these  compositions  are  marked 
with  clearness  of  statement,  fulness  of  information,  simplicity  of 
style,  and  vigorous  common  sense,  without  any  attempt  at  orna 
ment. 

Mr.  Apple  ton  entered  into  business  in  Boston  with  his  elder 
brother  Samuel  in  1795,  at  the  time  when  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States,  under  the  genial  influence  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
had  begun  to  revive  from  the  paralysis  caused  by  the  old  confedera 
tion.  Twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  prosperity  followed,  during  which 
he  laid  the  foundations  of  his  fortune.  The  restrictive  system 


APPENDIX.  69 

which  commenced  in  1807  crippled  the  trade  of  the  country,  and 
gradually  forced  the  thoughts  of  enterprising  men  toward  manufac 
tures.  The  first  attempts,  however,  were  made  without  skill  or 
experience,  and  Avith  imperfect  machinery,  and  did  not  inspire  Mr. 
Appleton  with  confidence  in  their  success.  Being  in  Europe  in  1811, 
he  met  Mr.  Francis  C.  Lowell  at  Edinburgh,  and  found  that  he 
entertained  sanguine  hopes,  that,  through  the  medium  of  the  power- 
loom,  the  cotton  manufacture  could  be  introduced  into  this  country. 
Mr.  Appleton  was  at  first  less  confident;  but,  when  Mr.  Lowell  — 
pursuing  the  object,  both  in  England  and  after  his  return,  with  equal 
sagacity  and  perseverance  —  determined  to  make  the  experiment  at 
Waltham,  Mr.  Appleton  cheerfully  shared  the  risk.  I  need  not  say 
to  this  audience  how  completely  this  experiment  succeeded.  The 
power-loom  was,  through  the  ingenuity  of  Mr.  Lowell,  introduced ; 
and  many  most  effective  improvements  in  the  spinning  machinery 
were  superadded.  This  success  was  certainly  due,  in  the  first  in 
stance,  to  Mr.  F.  C.  Lowell ;  and  next  to  him,  if  I  mistake  not,  to  the 
energy  of  Mr.  Patrick  T.  Jackson,  and  the  co-operation  and  influence 
of  Mr.  Appleton. 

The  return  of  peace  and  the  influx  of  foreign  goods  threatened  to 
prostrate  our  infant  manufactures  ;  but  they  had  already  acquired  a 
recognized  importance  as  a  national  interest.  Mr.  Appleton,  in  his 
valuable  pamphlet  on  the  subject,  informs  us  (what  is  otherwise 
matter  of  record),  that,  by  the  representations  of  Mr.  Lowell,  the 
eminent  Southern  statesmen,  Messrs.  Calhoun  and  Lowudes,  were 
convinced  of  the  expediency  of  the  square-yard  duty  of  six  and  a 
quarter  cents  on  imported  cottons.  These  gentlemen  were  satisfied 
by  Mr.  Lowell  that  they  desired  no  extravagant  bounty,  but  only  such 
protection  as  would  secure  them  against  the  fluctuations  and  gluts  of 
the  foreign  market.  He  foretold  to  them,  that,  the  manufacture  once 
established,  the  price  would  be  sure  to  be  brought  clown  by  domestic 
competition  ;  and  Mr.  Appleton's  instructive  pamphlet  shows  us,  that 
the  goods  which  in  1816  sold  for  thirty  cents  per  yard  were  sold  in 
1843  for  six  and  a  quarter  cents  per  yard,  fluctuating  from  seven  to 
nine  cents  with  the  price  of  cotton.  It  would  be  gratifying  to  know, 
from  those  theorists  who  maintain  that  a  protective  duty  is,  in  all 
cases,  added  to  the  price  of  the  domestic  article,  what  would  be  the 
price,  without  the  duty  of  six  and  a  quarter  cents,  of  the  article 
which,  with  the  duty,  sells  for  six  and  a  half  cents.  If  this  theory 
is  true  (and  it  is  the  theory  on  which  South  Carolina  drove  the 


70  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

country  to  the  verge  of  a  civil  war  in  1832),  the  price  without 
the  duty  would  be  one  quarter  of  one  cent  per  yard  ! 

The  success  of  the  enterprise  at  Waltham  led  to  the  foundation 
of  Lowell,  in  which  the  name  of  your  kinsman,  sir,  is  so  justly  com 
memorated.  Mr.  Appletou  was  one  of  the  original  proprietors, 
and  engaged  a  very  large  capital  in  the  first  company.  I  retain  a 
lively  recollection  of  a  visit  made  there  in  his  company,  and  that  of 
other  distinguished  persons  (among  them  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams), 
when  a  single  mill  only  had  been  built,  and  the  greater  part  of  Avhat 
is  now  Lowell  lay  in  a  state  of  nature.  The  confident  expectation 
was  then  expressed,  that  persons  at  that  time  living  would  see  it  a 
city  of  tAventy  thousand  inhabitants.  Mr.  Applcton  himself,  though 
then  in  middle  life,  lived  to  see  it  a  city  of  forty  thousand  inhabi 
tants  ! 

But  notwithstanding  the  success  of  the  cotton  manufacture  at 
Waltham  and  Lowell,  and  many  other  places  in  the  Northern  and 
Middle  States,  the  protective  policy  gained  friends  but  slowly.  It 
suffered,  in  fact,  at  the  hands  of  injudicious  advocates,  who  desired 
exorbitant  duties,  that  they  might,  without  capital  and  without  skill, 
do  what  required  both.  Their  imprudent  demands  played  into  the 
hands  of  the  Southern  politicians,  Avho,  for  the  purposes  of  local 
agitation,  now  made  Avar  upon  the  system  which  they  had  them 
selves  aided  in  building  up.  Accordingly,  Avhen,  about  ten  years 
after  the  foundation  of  Lowell,  the  question  arose,  whether  this 
great  interest  should  be  sacrificed  to  the  clamors  of  South  Carolina, 
Mr.  Appleton  accepted  a  nomination  to  Congress  as  a  friend  of 
moderate  protection,  and  Avas  elected  as  the  representatiAre  of  Boston. 
I  Avas  a  member  of  Congress  at  the  time,  and  in  daily  intercourse 
Avith  him.  Pie  Avas  of  the  class  of  men  that  always,  at  least  in 
quiet  times,  exercise  influence  in  the  House,  —  men  who  are  not 
politicians,  not  office-seekers,  not  talkers,  but  Avho  thoroughly  under 
stand  certain  branches  of  public  policy.  Mr.  Appleton  understood 
manufactures,  currency,  and  banking.  He  confined  himself  to  these 
subjects  in  debate.  The  House,  Avhen  he  rose,  gave  him  its  respect 
ful  attention,  because  they  kneAv,  that,  though  not  holding  out  the 
attractions  of  rhetoric,  he  never  spoke  without  having  something  to 
say  that  Avas  Avorth  hearing. 

There  was,  I  suppose,  no  person  in  the  community  who  understood 
the  subjects  of  banking  and  currency  better  than  Mr.  Applcton  ; 
few  as  well.  Mr.  Webster  once,  in  conversation  with  me,  after 


APPENDIX.  71 

mentioning  other  distinguished  financiers,  added,  "  But  Mr.  Apple- 
ton,  on  these  subjects,  is  our  most  acute  and  profound  thinker." 
His  tract  on  currency,  first  published  in  1841,  and  since  reprinted 
twice,  shows,  I  think,  the  justice  of  this  remark.  I  am  certainly 
bound  to  admit  it ;  for,  on  one  important  subject,  I  must  own  that 
lie  was  right,  and  I  was  wrong.  Sooner  than  most  men,  he  dis 
covered  the  false  system  and  dangerous  principles  on  which  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  was  proceeding,  and  foretold  the  crash  which 
afterwards  took  place.  Had  every  one  possessed  his  discernment  in 
this  respect,  how  much  public  wrong  and  private  suffering  would 
have  been  spared ! 

For  the  several  last  years  of  his  life,  Mr.  Appleton  had  been 
withdrawn  from  active  participation  in  business,  beyond  what  was 
necessary  for  the  care  of  his  property,  of  which  he  made  a  liberal 
use  as  a  patron  of  every  meritorious  charity  and  public-spirited 
enterprise.  He  watched  with  patriotic  anxiety  the  progress  of  our 
sectional  controversies,  but  took  no  active  part  in  affairs.  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  sketch  his  private  character.  Judging  from  the  con 
clusion  of  Mr.  Stevenson's  remarks,  which  is  all  I  had  the  good 
fortune  to  hear,  it  is  unnecessary  to  attempt  it.  I  have  come  not 
prepared  as  I  could  wish,  but  with  these  desultory  recollections  and 
thoughts,  the  unstudied  dictate  of  my  own  feelings,  —  not  a  tribute 
worthy  of  him,  or  of  the  beautiful  example  which  he  afforded  of  a 
mature,  well-balanced  character.  Eminently  happy  in  his  domestic 
relations,  he  enjoyed  to  the  full,  in  the  decline  of  life,  so  far  as 
impaired  health  would  permit,  his  well-earned  prosperity  ;  mode 
rate  in  all  things,  his  manners  simple  and  unostentatious,  his 
character  spotless,  his  religious  convictions  and  hopes  the  governing 
principle  of  his  life.  Mercantile  honor  he  held  in  all  but  supersti 
tious  estimation.  In  his  memoir  of  Mr.  Lawrence,  he  says  it  is  a 
great  error  to  suppose,  because  the  occupation  of  the  trader,  from 
its  nature,  affords  to  men  of  low-toned  character  a  temptation  or 
opportunity  for  dishonest  gain,  that  therefore  the  true  merchant 
deems  lightly  of  his  honor  :  "  It  is  as  dear  to  him,"  he  adds,  "  as  a, 
woman's  chastity."  Of  the  elevated  frame  of  mind  to  which  he  had 
risen  in  the  last  days  of  his  life,  the  domestic  calamity  to  which  Mr. 
Stevenson  has  alluded  drew  out  a  pathetic  illustration.  When  the 
intelligence  was  brought  him  of  the  shocking  event  which  destroyed 
the  life  of  his  beloved  daughter,  he  said,  "  She  has  only  gone  a  little 
while  before  me."  We  cannot,  Mr.  Chairman,  deeply  deplore  the 


72  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

close  of  a  life  leaving  behind  it  so  pure  a  memory,  protracted,  as 
Mr.  Stevenson  has  observed,  so  far  beyond  the  appointed  term,  and 
terminated  in  a  spirit  so  truly  Christian. 

I  beg  leave  to  second  the  resolutions  which  he  has  laid  on  the 
table. 

The  resolutions  were  then  unanimously  adopted ;  and,  on 
motion  of  Abbott  Lawrence,,  the  secretaries  were  directed  to 
transmit  a  copy  of  them  to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 

Mr.  Lowell,  the  chairman,  stated  that  it  had  been  suggested 
to  him,  that  the  merchants  of  this  city  close  their  stores  and 
counting-rooms  at  four  o'clock,  that  those  in  their  employ  might 
have  an  opportunity  of  attending  Mr.  Appleton's  funeral,  which 
was  to  take  place  at  half-past  four  o'clock,  at  King's  Chapel. 
The  meeting  then  adjourned.  The  above  suggestion  was  quite 
generally  carried  out. 


The  funeral  of  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton  took  place  yester 
day  afternoon.  After  the  usual  services  at  the  late  residence  of 
the  deceased  on  Beacon  Street,  the  body  was  removed  to  King's 
Chapel,  where  a  large  number  of  persons  had  assembled. 
Among  the  many  distinguished  gentlemen  present  were  Hon. 
Edward  Everett,  President  Felton  and  Professors  Holmes  and 
Lowell  of  Harvard  College,  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  Hon. 
S.  A.  Eliot,  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  James  Lawrence,  Abbott  Law 
rence,  and  Hon.  William  Sturgis.  The  relatives  of  the  deceased 
were  also  present.  The  services  were  conducted  by  Rev.  Ezra 
S.  Gannett,  D.D.  After  singing  by  the  choir,  Dr.  Gannett  read 
selections  from  the  King's-Chapel  Liturgy,  and  made  an  appro 
priate  prayer.  After  the  services,  the  body  was  placed  in  the 
hearse,  and  conveyed  to  the  family  burial  lot  in  Mount-Auburn 
Cemetery,  followed  by  a  procession  of  relatives  and  friends.  — 
Boston  Journal,  17th  July,  1861. 


APPENDIX.  73 


THE   MASSACHUSETTS   HOSPITAL   LIFE  INSURANCE 
COMPANY. 

At  the  stated  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Hospital  Life  Insurance  Company,  —  consisting  of 
the  following  members  :  William  Amory,  Edward  Austin,  Fran 
cis  Bacon,  J.  Ingersoll  Bowditch,  J.  Wiley  Edmands,  George 
H.  Kuhn,  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  Charles  G.  Loring,  Francis  C. 
Lowell,  John  A.  Lowell,  George  R.  Minot,  Ignatius  Sargent, 
William  Sturgis,  —  on  the  seventh  day  of  August,  1861,  the  fol 
lowing  preamble  and  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  :  — 

"  The  office  of  President  of  this  institution  having  been  made 
vacant  by  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,  who,  being  one 
of  its  founders  and  a  director  for  the  space  of  twenty-six  years,  has 
presided  over  it  for  the  remaining  twelve  of  its  existence,  and  served 
upon  the  Committee  of  Finance  throughout  both  periods,  —  the 
members  of  this  Board  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  of  its  first 
assembling  since  the  event,  to  express,  and  place  upon  record,  their 
profound  sense  of  the  value  of  his  services,  as  among  those  to  whom 
it  is  chiefly  indebted  for  its  success  and  usefulness ;  and  to  whose 
extensive  knowledge,  sound  judgment,  comprehensive  wisdom,  and 
urbane  manners,  the  ease,  safety,  and  pleasure  with  which  its  im 
portant  affairs  have  been  administered,  are  eminently  due  ;  — 

"  Therefore  Resolved,  That,  in  the  death  of  the  honored  head  of 
this  institution,  the  members  of  this  Board  lament  the  departure  of  an 
officer  most  able,  efficient,  and  faithful,  to  whom  they  and  the  other 
officers  of  the  Company,  and  all  interested  in  the  management  of  its 
highly  responsible  trusts,  arc  deeply  indebted  for  the  sagacity,  wis 
dom,  and  fidelity  which  he  ever  contributed  in  the  administration  of 
its  affairs  ;  and  of  a  profoundly  venerated  associate  and  friend,  by 
whom  the  labors  of  all  its  various  departments  have  been  from  its 
foundation  enlightened  and  cheered. 

"  Resolved,  That,  while  thus  mourning  the  removal  of  an  honored 
officer  of  this  Company  and  of  a  revered  personal  friend,  they  recog 
nize  also  the  loss,  to  the  city  and  the  commonwealth,  of  one  of  their 
noblest  citizens  and  brightest  ornaments ;  whose  extensive  knowledge 
and  far-reaching  sagacity  as  a  merchant  and  financier  ;  whose  wis 
dom,  patriotism,  and  magnanimity  as  a  statesman  ;  whose  high 

10 


71  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    NATHAN    Al'PLKTON. 

culture  and  virtues  as  a  Christian  gentleman,  neighbor,  and  friend  ; 
and  whose  spotless  and  elevating  example  in  all  the  walks  of  pri 
vate  and  official  life.  —  secured  to  him  the  universal  love  and  respect 
of  all  who  knew  him,  and  should  be  held  in  ever-grateful  remem 
brance  by  those  who  survive  him. 

"  liesolved)  That  the  members  of  this  Board  desire  individually 
to  express  to  the  family  of  the  deceased  their  profound  sympathy  in 
the  affliction  attending  the  departure  of  one  so  eminently  worthy  of 
all  love  and  respect,  however  chastened  by  the  reflection  that  his 
powers  to  enjoy  and  communicate  happiness  were  vouchsafed  to  a 
ripe  old  age,  and  that  neither  his  virtues  nor  their  influence  can  ever 
die  ;  and  that  Mr.  Sturgis  and  Mr.  Loring  be  a  Committee  to  com 
municate  to  them  this  assurance,  together  with  a  copy  of  these  reso 
lutions. 

"  Resolved,  That  these  proceedings  be  entered  at  large  upon  the 
records  of  this  Company." 

A  true  copy  from  the  records. 

Attest :  MOSES  L.  HALE,  Sccrd/tri/. 


THE   METIPJMACK   MANUFACTURING   COMPANY. 

At  the  adjourned  annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the 
Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company,  held  in  Boston,  on  Wed 
nesday,  Sept.  4,  1861,  upon  motion  of  Mr.  JOHN  A.  LOWELL, 
it  was  unanimously  — 

"  Resolved^  That  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company  enter 
tain  a  high  sense  of  the  value  of  the  services  of  the  late  Hon.  Nathan 
Appleton,  who,  for  so  long  a  period,  contributed  to  the  prosperity  of 
this  Company  in  the  varied  capacities  of  selling  agent,  director,  and 
president.  To  his  sagacity,  vigilance,  enterprise,  and  unflinching 
firmness,  should  be  ascribed,  in  a  large  measure,  a  success  to  which 
it  would  not  be  easy,  in  this  country,  to  find  a  parallel. 

"  Resolved^  That  the  Treasurer  be  requested  to  communicate  this 
expression  of  our  deep  feeling  to  the  family  of  Mr.  Appleton." 

A  true  copy  of  record. 

Attest :  T.  P.   TENNEY.  Clerl'. 


APPENDIX.  75 

THE   BOSTON   BANK. 

BOSTON  BANK,  BOSTON,  July  15,  1861. 

At  a  special  meeting  of  the  Directors  of  the  Boston  Bank, 
held  at  the  banking-room  this  day,  the  following  expression  of 
the  feeling  of  the  members  of  the  Board  was  unanimously 
adopted  :  — 

"  Voted,  That  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,  who  has 
been  a  director  of  this  bank  for  more  than  forty-eight  successive 
years,  prompts  us  to  record  our  appreciation  of  his  great  usefulness 
and  of  his  many  virtues. 

"  Mr.  Appleton  brought  to  the  performance  of  his  duties  here 
the  same  faithfulness  which  characterized  his  execution  of  the  many 
important  trusts  which  have  been  committed  to  him.  The  kindness 
of  his  heart,  the  vigor  of  his  intellect,  the  coolness  of  his  judgment, 
the  strictness  of  his  justice,  and  the  purity  of  his  morals,  insured  to 
him  the  affectionate  respect  of  those  who  were  associated  with  him 
during  his  lon^  and  useful  life. 

O  O 

"  Voted,  That  the  Cashier  be  requested  to  communicate  these  pro 
ceedings  to  the  family  of  Mr.  Appleton,  with  an  assurance  of  the 
sympathy  of  the  members  of  this  Board  with  them  in  this  hour  of 
their  bereavement. 

"  Voted)  That  this  testimonial  be  entered  upon  the  records  of  the 
bank,  and  that  this  Board  will  attend  the  funeral  services  in  respect 
to  the  deceased." 

A  true  copy.  JAS.   C.  WILD,  Cashier. 


STARK     MILLS. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  proprietors,  held  in  Manchester,  N.H., 
26th  June,  1861,  in  consequence  of  a  letter  from  the  Hon.  Nathan 
Appleton,  one  of  the  Directors  and  President  of  this  Company 
from  its  first  organization  in  1838  to  the  present  time,  declining 
a  re-election  to  a  membership  of  the  Board  of  Directors  on  ac 
count  of  ill  health,  the  following  vote  was  proposed  by  WILLIAM 
AMOKY,  Esq.,  and  passed  unanimously ;  viz.  :  — 


76  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  NATHAN  APPLETON. 

"  That  this  Company  receive  with  great  regret  the  declination  of 
the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton  to  remain  longer  in  the  Board  of  Di 
rectors  on  account  of  ill  health  ;  and  that  the  sincere  thanks  of  this 
Company  be  tendered  to  him  for  the  important  and  valuable  services 
he  has  rendered  so  acceptably  in  his  capacity  of  President  and 
Director,  from  the  organization  thereof  in  1838  to  the  present  time  ; 
and  that  the  Clerk  of  the  Company  be  requested  to  present  to  Mr. 
Appleton  a  copy  of  this  vote,  with  the  assurance  of  the  high  respect, 
appreciation,  and  good  wishes  entertained  for  him  by  this  Company, 
collectively  and  individually." 

Remarks  of  WILLIAM  AMORY,  Esq.,  on  proposing  a  vote  of 
thanks  to  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton  :  — 

Though  I  am  aware,  Mr.  President,  that  any  remark  from  any 
one  is  superfluous  to  insure  a  ready,  cordial,  and  unanimous  assent 
to  any  vote  expressive  of  personal  respect  and  affection,  here  or  any 
where,  for  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,  or  to  any  grateful  expression 
of  our  high  appreciation  of  the  value  of  his  official  services,  or  of 
our  sincere  regret  at  their  loss  in  this  instance,  I  cannot,  in  justice 
to  this  Company,  or  to  my  own  feelings,  or  to  the  claims  of  Mr. 
Appleton,  resist  the  temptation  —  by  a  very  few  words  in  support  of 
this  vote  —  to  put  on  record  official  testimony  of  the  estimation  in 
which  these  services  are  held  by  the  members,  directors,  and  officers 
of  this  Company. 

Mr.  Appleton  has  been,  as  we  all  know,  long  deservedly  con 
sidered,  and  is  often  termed,  the  Father  of  Lowell ;  and,  if  directly 
less  entitled  to  the  same  relationship  to  the  city  of  Manchester,  still, 
as  chiefly  instrumental  in  the  successful  introduction  and  promotion, 
by  his  capital  and  enterprise,  of  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods 
into  this  country,  he  may  fairly  claim,  and  we  proudly  concede  to 
him,  our  filial  gratitude  and  respect  as  one  of  the  Fathers,  and 
among  the  most  influential,  liberal,  and  efficient  patrons  of  this 
place. 

It  was  especially  by  the  liberal  aid  of  his  subscription  and 
example  that  the  first  mills  in  this  city  were  erected,  more  than 
twenty  years  since,  by  the  Stark  Company,  under  an  organization 
appointing  him  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  and  President  of 
the  Corporation  ;  and,  during  the  whole  of  that  time,  he  has  uninter 
ruptedly  discharged  all  the  duties  of  that  office,  with  that  signal 
fidelity,  punctuality,  discretion,  intelligence,  and  kindness  for  which 


APPENDIX.  77 

he  has  always  been  distinguished.  Rarely,  if  ever,  absent  from  any 
meeting  of  either  the  Board  or  the  Company,  he  was  always  able 
and  ready  to  aid  us  with  sound,  independent,  safe,  and  disinterested 
counsel,  boldness  tempered  with  judgment,  self-reliance  coupled 
with  a  courteous  respect  for  the  opinions  of  others,  a  rare  faculty  of 
generalization,  with  a  minute  knowledge  of  details  derived  from  large 
and  long  experience. 

A  hopeful  confidence  in  the  character  of  New-England  people 
and  in  the  progress  of  New-England  manufactures,  combined  with 
prudence  ;  a  philanthropic  interest  and  sympathy  for  those  employed 
in  our  mills,  consistent  with,  and  promotive  of,  the  prosperity  of  the 
proprietors  ;  a  steady,  courageous,  encouraging  defiance  of  the  tem 
porary  troubles  that  interrupt  occasionally  the  success  of  all  business 
during  commercial  or  political  panics  and  crises  ;  dignity  in  presiding 
at  our  business-meetings,  and  a  genial  bonhomie  at  our  social  enter 
tainments  ;  an  example  of  that  directness  of  purpose  and  stern 
integrity  which  diffuses  its  influence  over  the  management  of  every 
department  of  any  business  under  his  immediate  or  remote  supervi 
sion,  —  such  are  his  claims  to  our  thanks  and  respects,  and  our 
regrets  at  his  resignation. 

I  omit  here,  Mr.  President,  as  inappropriate  to  this  occasion,  any 
mention  of  many  other  qualities  characteristic  of  Mr.  Appleton  in 
private  or  social  life,  recognized  and  respected  by  his  personal  friends 
and  the  community  he  belongs  to  ;  and  confine  myself  to  the  enu 
meration  of  such  only  as  authorize  and  enjoin  upon  us  the  passage 
of  the  vote  proposed  to  express  our  thanks  for  the  services  he  has 
so  long  and  so  acceptably  rendered,  and  our  regrets  that  he  is  com 
pelled  by  any  cause,  and  especially  by  ill  health,  to  decline  a 
re-election. 


AMERICAN   ANTIQUARIAN   SOCIETY. 

At  the  Annual  Meeting  of  this  Society,  held  at  Worcester  on 
the  21st  of  October,  1861,  the  Hon.  LENT  LINCOLN  said  as 
follows  :  — 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  —  The  Report  of  the  Council  to  the  Society, 
which  has  been  read,  makes  appropriate  reference  to  the  recent 
lamented  decease  of  our  late-honored  and  much-esteemed  associate 


78  MEMOIR  OP  HON.  NATHAN  ATPLETON. 

arid  friend,  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,  and  contains  a  beautiful  and 
most  just  tribute  to  his  character.  I  know  not  how  any  tiling  can 
well  be  added  to  its  truthfulness  or  effect.  It  was  my  happiness,  per 
sonally  to  have  known  Mr.  Appleton  for  nearly  half  a  century  of 
years.  lie  belonged  to  a  generation  now  mostly  passed  away. 
There  are  few  of  his  cotemporaries  who  survive  him  ;  and,  of  those 
few,  I  find  myself  the  only  one  present  here,  who  may  utter  the  living 
voice  in  reverence  to  his  memory. 

Mr.  Appleton  was  a  man  of  no  ordinary  endowments.  His  libe 
ral,  enlarged,  comprehensive,  and  cultivated  mind  embraced  not  only 
the  great  interests  of  the  community,  but  the  still  higher  duties  of 
patriotism,  and  loyal  devotion  to  free  institutions  and  constitutional 
government.  As  a  legislator  and  a  statesman,  he  shared  largely  in 
the  confidence  of  the  people,  and  was  repeatedly  honored  by  official 
positions  in  the  councils  of  the  State  and  the  Nation.  I  have  myself, 
sir,  had  opportunity  to  witness  the  untiring  labor,  the  discreet  judg 
ment,  the  signal  ability,  with  which  he  discharged  the  public  service, 
and  the  commanding  influence  which  these  had  upon  the  action  of 
others.  As  a  member  of  this  Society,  we  all  remember  his  venerable 
form ;  his  unfailing  attendance,  even  under  the  burden  of  physical 
infirmity,  upon  our  meetings  in  Boston  ;  and  the  various  manifesta 
tions  of  his  interest  in  the  progress,  prosperity,  and  growing  usefulness 
of  our  Society.  Sir,  the  Society,  in  heartfelt  sympathy  with  the 
Council,  in  the  homage  rendered  to  his  virtues  by  the  accepted  Report, 
would  doubtless  seek  to  add  a  distinct  expression  of  its  sense  of  the 
greatness  of  the  public  loss  in  his  death  ;  and  I  ask  permission  to 
offer  for  consideration  at  this  time  the  following  Resolutions  :  — 

"  The  American  Antiquarian  Society,  since  its  last  meeting,  have 
occasion  to  deplore,  in  the  decease  of  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton  of 
Boston,  the  loss  of  one  of  its  most  distinguished  and  valued  mem 
bers. 

"  Therefore,  to  give  expression  to  their  sense  of  the  greatness  of 
the  bereavement,  and  of  the  profound  respect  in  which  they  hold  the 
character  and  memory  of  their  deceased  associate  and  friend,  — 

"  Pcsolved)  That,  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton, 
this  Society  enjoyed  the  countenance,  aid,  and  support  of  a  faithful 
and  attentive  member,  a  devoted  friend  of  scientific  research  and 
acquisition,  and  a  munificent  public  benefactor. 

"Resolved,  That  in  the  public  relations  which,  at  different  times 
and  for  many  years,  Mr.  Appleton  sustained  to  the  State  and  Nu- 


APPEN  Dl  X.  1\) 

tional  Governments,  as  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  the  Common 
wealth,  and,  subsequently,  as  a  representative  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  his  services  were  eminently  distinguished  by  proofs 
of  untiring  assiduity  in  duty  ;  liberal,  comprehensive,  and  enlightened 
views  of  public  policy  ;  and  a  spirit  of  patriotism  commensurate  with 
the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  best  interests  and  honor 
of  the  Republic. 

"Resolved,  That,  in  common  with  other  beneficent  institutions  with 
which  he  was  associated  ;  the  State  which  he  so  long  and  faithfully 
served  ;  the  business  community,  to  which  his  whole  life  was  an 
example  of  industry,  probity,  and  usefulness,  —  we  mourn  his  de 
parture,  and  deeply  sympathize  with  those  to  whom  his  death  is  an 
irreparable  personal  affliction. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  Resolutions  be  entered  at  large  upon 
the  records  of  the  Society,  and  a  copy  thereof  be  transmitted,  by  the 
Secretary,  to  the  Family  of  the  deceased." 


